16. Heptagon

ARTIST: Corinne Ericson (2011)
TECHNIQUE: Stainless steel

The art work consists of stainless steel plates joined into a heptagonal room. Facing north the art work is open and invites the visitors to enter the room. Inside, akin to a Russian doll, there is another heptagonal closed room where you can walk around. There are words and short sentences on the steel plates of this inner room. The light that is filtered through the slits between the plates creates a sacred atmosphere in the otherwise narrow space and this reinforces the meditative function of the words.

Corinne Ericson is a Swedish sculptor, born in 1967. She studied art history at Gothenburg University, then at Gothenburg Art School and the Royal College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She had her first separate show at the Gothenburg Art Club´s “Little Gallery” in 2005. In 2009 Ericson was awarded a scholarship annually awarded to women artists in memory of Anna-Lisa Thomson.

At a distance the sculpture might look like a simple steel box, but appearances are deceptive. The art work is complex, despite its seemingly minimalistic claim. It is a sculptural heptagon of stainless steel with a cut-through geometric pattern in the steel which makes it glitter all around. If you choose to enter the work then you catch sight of a hollow pillar which you can walk around. The pillar is inaccessible to visitors. But also here the geometric pattern of slit quadratic surfaces is repeated. In the inner form there are words, such as take a run, press on, remember, striding, leave traces and so on. What the words stand for is up to the beholder´s interpretation.

The sculpture both includes and excludes the world resulting in tranquillity. The sculpture flows into the landscape since growth, earthen shapes and the sky are reflected in the work.