Guðrún Nielsen
2010
Skúlptúr Umhverfisverk Málmur Steinsteypa
Steel and concrete may not be among the elements that first come to mind in relation to the term ‘changes’. However, creating her public artwork with the same title, Icelandic artist Gudrun Nielsen used these very materials in a remarkable manner. Nine Cor-ten steel plates were folded differently, placed on as many concrete slabs and lined up in the New Greenham Park. Visitors can walk along the massive yet playful objects or follow them back and forth with their eyes from a distance. On each end of the line the abstract shapes are simple, becoming more elaborate in the center where one of them takes the clear form of a fighter plane. The heavy-metal origami reminds us of the fact that this park was once a military airbase and the regular sculpture plinths are in fact recycled from the debris of the old landing strip. Together with the direct material reference, the systematic growth and unfurling of the geometric shapes symbolize the park’s history of renovation and improvement. Expressing the folding and unfolding of the past, Nielsen’s visual loop brings material life to the words of the poet William Cowper describing the wheel of time: ‘Still ending, and beginning still.’ Markús Þór Andrésson
