Whirlwind Trip of Oslo (29-Feb) - Part 4 - Vigelands Sculpture Park

Our next stop was the Vigelands Sculpture Park (at Frogner Park).  In my previous post about statue Bingo in Malmö I made it clear that I wasn't excited by art, and I think after you read this post I will need to plead my case again - especially when you see that between us, Kris and I took 226 photos at this park (out of the 900 we took for the whole trip and visits to 15 places and wandering the city shots).

Vigelands Sculpture Park is named after Adolf Gustav Thorson (who was known as Gustav Vigeland).  He was born in 1869 and died in 1943.

The history of the park started in 1921, when the city of Oslo wanted to demolish the house where Vigeland lived in order to build a library.  He came to a compromise where he was given a new building in which to work and live and in return he donated all of his subsequent works to the city.  Over the next few years Vigeland worked on an open air exhibit at Frogner park - designing, creating and installing 212 bronze and granite sculptures.

What excited me most about this installation was a sculpture I had previously seen on Facebook memes - "Man attacked by babies."  The sculptures at the park deal with the themes of family and cycles of life - there is a main bridge with a series of sculptures showing various aspects of life, a fountain with tree showing the cycle of life and a monolith in the shape of bodies.

"Man attacked by babies" is strange, it is unusual and at first glance it made no sense - I guess that's why I liked it so much:

Damn you evil babies!

Alana tried to free one of the babies, and then we all posed.  You can't see it, but I'm thinking that if we had one more kid we could do a reenactment - we get pretty close most mornings when we need to get ready for school, or at juniors rugby training...

This was Tomas' favourite statue - he called it "Should have gone to specsavers"

One of the ends of the bridge

The way Kristine used to greet me before we got married

The way Kristine greeted me after we got married - otherwise known as the "Baby has a stinky, leaking nappy and now you're home it it's your problem..."

Our re-enactment, they are getting heavy - when Kris first asked me to re-enact this one I was worried I'd get arrested, but she assured me it would work if I kept my clothes on too...

And even Kris got in on the re-enactments

Looking down the bridge

Looking off the bridge

This "Sinnataggen"  "The Little Angry Boy" is one of the most famous statues at the park

 As well as the bridge there was a large fountain surrounded with placards and tree sculptures showing various stages of life:

The fountain

The centerpiece of the fountain

The sides of the fountain were covered with plaques showing different life scenes:

Im guessing there is some sort of agricultural scenes - ride a sheep backward, sit on a bulls head and offer your baby to the flying fish.

Looks like Rachel has a tough decision to make....

Looking down the side of the fountain

Ok so now we have another babies in trouble scene - riding a wolf and jammed arms down its throat, being bucked by a goat and kicked by a horse

I guess that he wasn't too happy with the wolf - possibly after what it did to the babies, I guess the horse and goat are next.

Some of the trees

   
 After the fountain we headed up to the monolith - there was a series of ornate gates:

The gates and the monolith

More gates

The steps leading up to the monolith

One of the statues leading up the monolith - everyone loves a cube of babies

The monolith

Monolith

After spending some time looking at all the statues, it started getting dark so we left the car in the carpark of the park (so we didn't have to try to escape the evil carpark near the hotel) and caught a tram into Oslo.  We had dinner at Max burger and then headed back to the hotel to sleep.  Overall we had walked close to 20km today and seen some awesome stuff.
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More Photos of the park:
Here's the full photo set of all of the sculptures, starting at the corner closest to the Monolith (northern corner), working down the side and then back up the other:

The path we followed to photo the statues

The first pillar

Statue One - the proud (and naked man)

Grandfather and grandchild (or creepy old naked man leading a kid away - your call)

Man attacked by babies!

Man lifting a child

What a poser..

I just cant do anything with my hair!

Two nude ladies and a lamp-post - I'm sure I saw this on that late night walk back from Copenhagen..

I'm not quite sure whats happening here, but it reminded of the Firies "Her head won't come off" scene from Labyrinth

A lovey one after all the violence

The cool kid - I'm pretty sure he wasn't made with those glasses..

Some kind of wrestling circus trick?

A cute child and an awesome view of a frozen lake

Another lovey one

Body Slam!

"How you doin'?"

Francis never managed to learn all the moves to "Y.M.C.A."

Paul tries to finish what the babies started

Nothing to see here, just two men - guarding a lamp post - in the nude

Watch as I pull a small child out of my kneecap!

Another poser

Mother and daughter

Finally Sam realised what his son's horse had really died of

Two ladies

Mother comforting one the babies that failed to attack the man

Swinging a child

Any parent of more than one child will recognise the classic sacks of potatoes pose

And the baby hat

The Northeastern pillar - woman with a dragon coat

Southeastern pillar - looks like something out of Alien

The classic "Two feet in the face pose"

Not sure if she is hugging the baby or eating it 'Walking Dead' style

The stinky, leaky nappy dash to the change mat pose

The "I didn't do it mum" pose

Is it a bird, is it a plane? I can't see with all the sunglare

Let's run, John. Before that horrible man who was kicking the babies finds you!

If you cover your eyes, no-one can see you, even though you're standing naked on a bridge

This one looked a bit cross

Quick! Catch the babies!

The intimidating naked dude

This guy was just standing there - honest, you didnt miss much in the sunglare

Some kind of Norwegian Robot Dance

We are definately not going to look at that lamp post!

After this, Graeme was banned from showing the kids his wrestling moves

Hugging or smothering? You be the judge

He's angry he missed out on attacking the man

Michael was sure there had to be a better way to make the truck tyres round - at least he could do it clothed.

This kid looked frozen - sure it was -4 degrees and she was naked.

I'm sure he is grabbing her bottom

And now he is celebrating

And she has a headache

Another lady

Adam had only been gone five minutes

There's a baby in there somewhere

Dad is still taller

This tackle would be less disturbing if they had clothes on

Piggy back!

Blue steel

The final pillar

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The fountain:

Trees - well a man sticking babies in a tree

More trees

Naked man hugging a tree

Kids and women in trees

I'm not sure whats happening in the first one, the second is a man punching a ladies bum and the third is a man surrounded by flying babies

A man attacking a man, a lady stretching a child, to people trying to merge babies, a man attacking an eagle and throwing babies in the air

Flying babies and animal skeletons

Dead stuff

Death

One of the walls

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Monolith:
Gates - 



 Statues around the base:


The monolith: