The new public sculpture will bring colour and playfulness to the Kalasatama residential district. Early One Morning, Eternity Sculpture by Swedish artist Jacob Dahlgren is a pink, serpentine steel sculpture. According to the artist, it is like the game where you draw a figure with a single line without lifting the pen from the paper. Rising to a height of four metres and 10 metres in diameter, the sculpture will be unveiled at Capellanaukio square in Kalasatama on Helsinki Day, 12 June 2019.
Jacob Dahlgren wants to create urban spaces that provide an opportunity for relaxation and play. Inviting passers-by to sit on its lower levels, Early One Morning, Eternity Sculpture is a kind of meeting place, although climbing is forbidden.
“Its appearance changes depending on which direction you look at it from. It is like a phrase written in longhand and in a completely new language,” Dahlgren describes his work.
Swedish artist Jacob Dahlgren (b. 1970) likes to toy with the tradition of geometric art in his work. He creates artworks that are eminently approachable and encourage viewers to interact with them. The Finnish public knows Dahlgren best for The Wonderful World of Abstraction (2009). Belonging to the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the work invites viewers to lose themselves in a space of colourful stripes. Dahlgren is a versatile artist who works with equal facility with painting, sculpture and installation. He has created numerous public artworks around the world. Dahlgren represented Sweden at the 2006 Venice Biennale, and was nominated for the Ars Fennica prize in 2002.
Currently under construction, the Kalasatama area of Helsinki will in the next few years get a number of new public artworks. Produced jointly by the executive office and the urban environment division of the City of Helsinki and Helsinki Art Museum HAM, Early One Morning, Eternity Sculpture is the fourth public work of art in the area. Other works in the HAM collection in the area include Riikka Puronen’s Compass and Stars (2018), Villu Jaanisoo’s Siberian Jay (2016) and Timo Heino’s Line Drawn on Water (2014). Dahlgren’s sculpture is part of the public art project for Kalasatama in which both permanent and temporary artworks and events are produced urban development area. The project is funded with payments from developers levied on the basis of the floor areas of buildings.
