31. Dansen

ARTIST: Karin Ward (2001)
TECHNIQUE: Sheet iron

This piece of art is supposed to give the viewer an illusion of dancing. Although cut out of the same sheets of iron, the six figures were given different characters. As so often in Karin Ward´s work, she is concerned with good and flat creatures.

The artist was given the task of creating something for the mount that would lure visitors into the park, introduce and tie together an experience on the mount in some way. That is why her work stands by the road where you turn into the park. As you approach and turn to the right into the park, the figures seem to move in movements of dance.

Karin Ward was born in 1940 in Ljusdal. She has studied at the College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. She has also spent time in Egypt and France. Both in 2010 and 2011 she participated in the international art fair called Carrousel du Louvre at the Louvre in Paris. She has two other works in nearby Örebro: Moon Watchers´ Bench at the House of Nature and Gustv V at Risbergska, a school in Örebro.

The six figures are made of sheet iron. They are laser-cut and untreated. Their bodies are actually nothing but contours and hollow torsos. Two of them were cut out of the original sheet, while the others are silhouettes. Perhaps Ward is connecting here to the Greek myth of how man was created. It was believed that man originally was a two-headed creature, with four arms and four legs. They were also androgynous, both men and women. Not until Zeus divided us did we become the creatures that we are today. After this division man is constantly looking for the part that he was separated from. That is where the myth of a “soul mate” comes from. Is that what we see in front of us – four persons who were two from the beginning?

The figures in The Dance are shaped in an easy-going and pleasant way, which is typical of Ward. In her work you can often see the joy of life that unites and strengthens us as human beings. Her work conveys inner warmth, kindness and an inner light.

During the 70s Viotti used unconventional materials in her art, i.e. Plexiglas and other plastics. The value of the material did not interest her, but instead she was in search of new expressions and combinations of materials. Often Ward´s work has been colored by a sensuous or sensual aura.

This is also true here at Art at the Top. It does not take much imagination to see how the figures move, rhythmically and temptingly, to the beat of the music. Ward´s art celebrates life in its manifolds.