On Sunday, when the potential of a great
sunset was slowly fading away and as hubby had already had his daily walk, I
headed downstream towards the harbour end of the river for a change. There are
always strollers pacing the embankment by the Forum Marinum maritime centre but for once I had the Daisy sculpture in front of the museum practically
to myself. (It is the medieval Turku Castle in the distance.)
The petals of the very realistic-looking
flower are made of glass fibre with iron reinforcements. Its yellow centre is
carved in wood and so are the little green bracts below the flower, I believe. The
25-meter-long stem resting against the ground is composed of 12 wooden structures
each measuring almost a cubic metre.
The huge Daisy was designed and built by
artists Jani Rättyä and Antti Stöckell for an environmental art
event held in 2011 when Turku was, together with Tallinn, the European Capital of Culture. Although originally planned to be a temporary attraction it became
such a popular piece it has been bringing joy to all passers-by, especially the
young ones, ever since.
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| If I could draw a cartoon I would take my character from this ice formation, with the spot on the cheek and all. |
As I had my camera with me, I couldn’t help
stopping by the Theatre Bridge to listen to the whispering and howling one more
time. The snowless, partly wet ice cover painted the colourful views rather more
spectacular than in my previous post, don’t you think? Temperate winter weather does have its advantages. Nevertheless, the decorations will be dismantled in a few days and everyone is more than ready for some snow the forecasts have been telling about recently. They have loads in Lapland. It is about time some of it came our way. I would welcome snow without the freezing cold temperatures, though.
Not only did you manage stunning sunsets but that daisy is glorious. Love the shot with people sitting on the stem. What a shame the bridges will lose their decorations. They really do cheer a winters day. Good luck with the snow. If you get some send a little this way please :) B x
ReplyDeleteWithout any guarantees, I will surely try to blow it your way!
DeleteThat sculpture is amazing is looks so realistic, I'm not surprised that it was so popular. Your pictures of it taken from different angles makes us appreciate the size of it. The colourful relections in the water look spectacular! Sarah x
ReplyDeleteI read the artist's original idea was to design something to be placed at the crane on the other side of the river. There are several cranes there that are no longer operational but are preserved as monuments reminding of the past of the area. However, it would have been too difficult to erect anything there so the daisy was positioned on the other side of the river to face the crane. It was a perfect solution as that is the busy museum side and there was practically nothing but housing projects on the crane side.
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