Another Place

Several years ago, when we lived in Norway, we first experienced art on the beach.

This was a work titled "Another Place" by the Turner Prize winning artist, Antony Gormleyhttp://www.antonygormley.com/.

Another Place consists of 100 cast-iron, life-sized, naked, anatomically-correct (hey, it's Scandinavia) figures spread out along the beach and into the North Sea. Contractors spent three weeks lifting the figures into place and driving them into the beach. The figures were cast replicas of the artist's own body. The girls called this "Naked Men on the Beach" because ...well ... that is what it was.

After the statues were removed, they were recast and and reincarnated into another work called "Broken Column". This had them spread out around the town of Stavanger at certain exact levels and locations.

You never quite knew where you would find them. There was one in a shop, one at a gas station and one was hidden in a staircase outside the main parking garage. I think I screamed every time I came around the corner and found him lurking there. Here are a few of the members of The Broken Column.

(With the high gas prices in Norway, a little art was a nice distraction.)

This one liked to shop.

This is the one that made me scream every time.

Well, this story doesn't stop here. For my readers in Dallas, you too can see a work by Antony Gromley. Where you might ask? What art museum? Why in the mall, of course. If you are ever in North Park Mall, look for a work called "Three Pieces" . Who knows where else these guys might have been.

These guys like to shop too.