13. Koncentrator

ARTIST: Torgny Larsson (1998)
TECHNIQUE: Stainless steel

The intention of the artist was to make a sculpture that would have the shape of a bowl of stainless steel. The viewer was to enter the bowl and would then only see the sky. The rays from heaven would be concentrated onto the sculpture. You can experience Concentrator as a meditative space – a room that you enter and where you are alone with your thoughts. In other words, you are an important part of Concentrator.

When you see the work of art from the outside, as you are doing now, you might easily believe that it is a boat stored for winter. From this angle the work is mostly an elegant but unsympathetic shape, secluded in itself and brightly cool. Actually this work goes together with the idea of Mount Kvarntorp as a cult place. This is a meeting-place for the stars in the sky. Just like Leif Bolter´s and Lars Englund´s sculptures, that you will soon see, this work also reminds us of extremely old instruments at an ancient place of observation where people used to study the motion of the stars upon the firmament and other significant interstellar phenomena.

Concentrator is such an instrument, a kind of focused lens aimed at the sky. Part of the art experience is to enter the work of art, which you do through the “hull´s” generous opening. Some experience this as “the first mother´s vulva”. Once inside you should of course look up into the sky. That will be a bit like wearing a cone-shaped hood. The work cuts you off, increases your attention and sharpens your gaze at the same time as you are filled with the strong light collected by the shape of the sculpture.

Torgny Larsson was born in 1957 in Finspång; he is a Swedish sculptor. He was trained at The Royal College of Fine Arts and The College of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm. He likes to work with neon and other light effects, something which you might notice now as you are standing there checking the sky while the material is catching the light. Some of his other works function the same way: Energy Temple, The Blue Bow in Piteå; Heavenly Boat, Celestial Vessel in Halmstad.

Just like discovering the stars in the sky, you can also visit the work in the daytime to look up into the blue sky that tells us something about how beautiful life on earth can be. This short moment of reflection in the stainless steel sculpture can give us energy. As we take in art, it might heighten our presence in the here and now, a kind of mindfulness, which Concentrator

can do. If you are still inside the work, then look to the opening and notice how the sculpture forms a field of vision including Mother Earth, a mirror of water and a bit of the horizon.