En metalisk snurra

Sir Anselms ögon 

Installation year: 2024
Curator: Björn Norberg
City: Skredsvik
Property owner/cooperation partner: Fortifikationsverket
Category: Permanent art
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In the distance you can see two sculptures standing on the hill at Cederslund, the naval operating base of Gullmaren. They resemble seamarks and are linked to the long maritime history of the site, but can also be interpreted as observing eyes that never rest. The work is called Sir Anselms ögon (The Eyes of Sir Anselm) and was created by the artist Katarina Löfström in 2024.

Image 1 of 4. Sir Anselm Ögon

In several works, Katarina Löfström has taken an interest in abstract symbols used for communication and to indicate direction. They can be seamarks but also optical telegraphs, semaphores or target boards. The two seven-metre-high sculptures are made of wood and lacquered steel and connect to this theme. But they can also be interpreted as two eyes, where parts of the eyes change direction and are constantly in motion.

When the work was created, the curatorial vision was based on the history of the site, the activities that take place here and on a symbol that is important to those who work on the base. At the naval operating base, mine clearance diver students are trained in mine and ammunition clearance at sea. Home Guard training is also available here. The mine clearance divers must defuse and clear mines, undetonated ammunition, booby traps, sabotage devices and terrorist bombs, both on land and in the border area between land and water as well as underwater. The training is very demanding – both physically and mentally.

In this hard everyday life, there is also a streak of humour. The title of the work, Sir Anselms ögon, alludes to the mascot and patron saint of the mine clearance divers, Sir Anselm Dykén. When plans for a naval operating base with mine clearance diver training materialised in the early 1950s, it was partly a consequence of new advances in oxygen tubes and their air measurement abilities. A new type of light divers with new and flexible equipment would be trained, so-called frogmen. The United States was at the forefront of development and two officers from Sweden were sent to a mine clearance diver school in the United States for training. When Rolf Hamilton, the founder of the education at Cederslund, came back from the journey, he had a rubber toy frog with him. The frog was named Sir Anselm Dykén and became the mascot of the divers – a way of humorously relating to the gravity of the daily life of the clearance divers.

The nod to the frog is present in the work, both through the title and the design of the round spaces that can be interpreted as eyes watching over the base and the landscape around Gullmarsfjorden. In her draft proposal, Katarina Löfström describes how she has also been inspired by research on post-traumatic stress disorder and forms of therapy that use eye movements. She thinks of the sculpture as a calming, light-hearted and unifying symbol.

The work was created in connection with an expansion of the naval operating base and is part of the Public Art Agency’s work with designed living environments.

Sir Anselms ögon is produced by the Public Art Agency and is owned and managed by the Swedish Fortifications Agency.

Artist Biography Katarina Löfström

Katarina Löfström (1970) was born in Falun and lives and works in Stockholm. She is educated at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, and has had solo exhibitions at several Swedish art galleries and art museums. She has also participated in group exhibitions in Sweden and abroad and has had numerous public art commissions.

Light, perception and how we choose to interpret the world are recurring themes in Katarina Löfström’s art – regardless of whether the works are video works, three-dimensional works or installations. She has a strong belief in the inherent ability of images to create meaning without resorting to language. During the 1990s, Löfström also made music videos with the director Jonas Åkerlund for artists such as Prodigy and Madonna.