Monuments Archives

Street Art – Jessheim

COLORING THE STREETS in Jessheim

In Jessheim there is a lot of exciting street art .

Jessheim celebrated its 10-year town anniversary in 2022 and in that connection a wall was painted with a Steinar Caspari motif designed by Egil Nyhus called Gjess.

In the park by Såvegen there is also an exciting piece of art painted on a small house.

On the back wall of Ullensaker Kulturhus there is also a wall with drawings inspired by motifs and people from Jessheim.

Martin Whatson has painted several walls around the Oslo region in correlation with a project called SPRAY. In Jessheim Whatson and Eric Ness Christiansen have done a huge piece together. To get to the art simply take the bus or train to Jessheim station. From there walk across the parking lot to Henrik Bulls vei. You can see Whatson's work finishing the piece on each sides of the road.
Check out the SPRAY video here

Martin Whatson (b.1984) is a Norwegian street artist best known for his calligraphic scribbles in grayscale voids. Over the past decade, Martin has developed an unmistakable aesthetic combining abstract movement with figurative stencilled compositions. His works can be seen to mirror the rise and fall of the streets, as he symbolically recreates the urban environment, then vandalises it to reveal his vibrant transformations. Read more about Whatson

Information from Visit Greater Oslo

Stone Art Hvaler (StenKunstHvaler)

On the southern part of Rødshue on Kirkøy, in a landscape full of remnants of old stonecutter activities, the sculpture park StenKunstHvaler is located. It is an outdoor exhibition that is easily accessible throughout the year.

Here you will find stone art by internationally known sculptors who work with local stone, leaving behind a work of art in the coastal landscape. Here an exciting meeting between old, local stone carving industry and modern, international sculpting business takes place in a magnificent landscape by the sea! The place has been visited for several summers by selected international artists who have worked with stone on the spot and leave behind a work of art that will remain for all time.

The first artist out here was the Italian Allesandro Stenico, who in 2005 erected the sculpture Witnesses of the Past. These two abstract columns are made from a large block of granite from the quarry at Urdal. There, the large block was split in two and shaped into a masculine and a feminine column. Which pillar is of which gender is up to each individual to consider. Although the columns are separated from each other, the viewer gets the impression that together they create a larger unit.

When you get closer to the sculpture, you see an egg-shaped stone placed in front of the columns. The stone is marked with a spiral pattern – a symbol of people's lives, and which reminds us that past and future are connected.

In 2006, it was the Japanese Makoto Fujiwara who prepared his Tribute to Røsshue. This tribute is to the landscape, but perhaps to the greatest extent to those who had their daily work here. He started from a niche that the stoneworkers worked in to get shelter from the weather. Here he has created a room from the materials he has found from previous quarries. Together with the small tree, a meditative place is created facing, but sheltered from, the stormy sea.

Vegard Hanve has quite concretely taken local materials as his starting point. Hans Refleksjon (Reflection), which was unveiled in 2007, is based on a cliff-shaped part of the mountain. Here he has polished parts of the mountain so that it reflects this cultural landscape which is the result of the stonemasons' toil. Out of the polished area, a glare is created in the surface, which reflects the light of nature. The sculpture's name alludes to reflection both as we can see with the naked eye when light meets darkness and reflections come and go, but also to reflection about what has been.

From Sweden, Ann Carlsson Korneev came in 2008 with her project En vandring mot horisontens ljus (A walk towards the light of the horizon). The sculpture is shaped like an eye that captures the light from the sea and sky outside towards the endless horizon. The sculpture's uneven lines challenge our ability to see. The game that occurs when we try to focus on a line, but as we get closer, it somehow dissolves. This alludes us to a further reflection on the transition between sky and sea through the way we look.

The latest was Norwegian Gunn Harbitz in 2009 with her artwork Gul Lophelia (Yellow Lophelia). The sculpture has a shape reminiscent of a woman's body, where the shapes of the figures protect the open space in the centre. Here in the center there is a container, which holds a small piece of coral-stem yellow lophelia, which is also found on the bottom of the sea outside the Hvaler Islands.

The artwork encourages us to take care of nature, the sea and our planet – and to see the fine-tuned ecological interaction.

Rødshue is worth a visit all year round, experience the wild, rugged coastal nature where the Skagerrak stands right up. Or not always so harsh, it varies from the quiet, sunny warmth that invites you to throw away your clothes to life-threatening storm gusts in the middle of winter where one should choose other activities. In combination with a chaos of rubble from the toil of the stoneworkers in the last century and the stone sculptures erected in our own, it provides contrasts that last.

You reach StenKunstHvaler and Rødshue by driving off the Fastlandsveien 300 meters east of the tunnel opening and following the sign pointing towards Rødshue. Drive the dirt road for about a kilometer until it ends at the car park. Walk a few tens of meters back along the road and out towards Rødshue along the marked path.

The Riverside art park

The Riverside art park creates experiences and impressions along the Nitelva in Lillestrøm and the Sagelva in Sagdalen.

It is owned and operated by Lillestrøm municipality.

The art park has so far been financed by Lillestrøm Banken, Romerike Sparebank, Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, Lillestrøm municipality, and KORO. More information about the art park can be found on the website of Lillestrøm municipality.

More information about the art you will find here at this website

The memorial ground in Drøbak

The memorial ground in Drøbak Bathing Park is seen in interaction with the established bust of the commander at Oscarsborg fortress Oberst Birger Eriksen, who ordered fire on the German battleship Blücher in April 1940, as well as an anchor from the ship. The three elements represent dramatic and tragic events. The memorial with inscriptions of the local casualties associates a sheet in the wind.

Member of Visit Greater Oslo

Imprints – ceramic sculpture park

The sculpture park was designed by the Norwegian artist Magne Furuholmen and is the largest collection of ceramic works in Scandinavia today. Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the sculpture park when it was ready in June 2016.

There are 40 individual ceramic elements, all made of high-burnt faience. Two huge jars of 6 meters weighing 9 tons each form the entrance and end of the park. On the long sides there are 9 different columns of between 2 and 4 meters which are placed in two elongated water basins, where water and steam will create different atmospheric moods depending on the season.

"The goal was to create a park that could be experienced in different ways at different times, with water in the summer and steam in the winter as an atmospheric element, in addition to lighting"

In my faith, in my hope, in my love

Three cast-iron heads are standing at the quayside in Fredrikstad. Their eyes are closed. The monumental size of the 4.5 metre sculptures contrasts with the peaceful, introverted expressions of the young women portrayed. The way in which the heads are stretched vertically gives them a floating, spiritual feel.

Plensas three heads are modelled from real people. The shape is processed digitally before it is produced in cast iron, conceived especially for this location.

The artist has long been inspired by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and it was a quote from Peer Gynt that inspired him to make the three-part artwork in Fredrikstad:

– When Peer returns from his journey, where he has failed as a human being in many ways, he asks his wife Solveig ‘Where was I as the one I should have been, whole and true?’ Solveig answers: ‘In my faith, in my hope, in my love’. With these words he is set free. It's a strong message, and I've wanted to make an artwork based on Solveig for quite some time. It was really fitting to do this as my first project in Norway.

– Although this is my motivation for the work, it's not necessary for the audience to know the story. Everyone is free to interpret it in his or her own way.

Skulpturstopp is a gift from Sparebankstiftelsen DNB to Norwegian municipalities.

The Hammering Man

Welcome to The Hammering Man in Lillestrøm! This solid man is 12 meters tall and weighs in excess of 20.5 tons. Hammering Man is the first work to be placed in the art park by the flood. It is the American Jonathan Borofsky who made the wonderful statue. There are similar statues in different places in the world – In Europe there are 3 other places than here in Lillestrom, one in Asia and 7 in the USA. An exciting and huge monument!

Information from Visit Greater Oslo

Carsten Ankers summerhouse

Eidsvoll museum

Visit Eidsvoll Municipal museum, Eidsvoll Occupation museum, Feiring ironworks, St. Paul's iron mine and Carsten Anker's house

Member of Visit Greater Oslo

Sculpture “Cheval de frise”

"Cheval de frise" is a series of sculptures by Dag Skedsmo, which were given as a gift to the city of Kongsvinger from Hedmark kunstfond. The sculptures were erected in 2022 along the Glomma river.

– Cheval di frise were a defence weapon used from the Middle Ages until the 19th century. In World Wars I and II, they reappeared as large steel structures.

– Kongsvinger Fortress has never been besieged or been in direct combat. The Swedes came here twice on this side of the Glomma, and both times they were fired on from the fortress and retreated. So this sculpture could just as easily be called "here, but no further"," says Dag Skedsmo.

Dag Skedsmo is a Norwegian painter and graphic artist. He works with geometric shapes in painting and screen printing, among other things. He has continued the hard edge tradition from the art of the 1960s, and has also been interested in optical phenomena. His compositions are executed with precision in cold, often blue and steel grey colours with hints of red.

Howling Dog by Erik Pirolt

The large dog in polished steel is placed on a high plinth on the bank of the Glomma River outside KUSK (Kongsvinger High School). The dog is tall and clearly visible. The steel has been polished a number of times so that the surface appears highly polished. The surface reflects the surroundings of the sculpture. This effect is a central part of the artwork.

Different seasons, light and weather will determine what we see. We, as viewers, become part of the whole. The reflections that arise are temporary and distorted. Pirolt wants the sculpture to be easy to perceive. The construction helps us to interpret it ourselves. The artwork becomes a characteristic of the place by allowing us to associate our own experiences with it. However, there is still a question that remains. The dog has raised its head to the sky and howls. Why does it do that?

The fact that the dog turns towards the sky may suggest something spiritual, religious or perhaps universal. Wergeland wrote it in poetry, in the poem "Myself"; "There is kinship between the soul and the stars."