RESEARCH QUESTION: Who was Gustav Vigeland? What lies behind the famous public park for tourists? What does the fountain in the park symbolize? What stories of life do the trees of life on the fountain tell?
I am a very naturalistic person and I feel everyone should be concerned with nature in some way. When I went through Vigeland Park for the first time as a tourist, the only things I liked in the whole park were the Sundial and the Trees of Life. I was unaware of the meanings behind the sculptures and concept of the park as a whole, until I started writing this essay. Then I found out for myself why I was so compelled to draw near to the tree statues and study them closely. They tell a story I know very well. It is one I have been living every day of my life from the time I was born, and I will keep living it till I die. I love art that involves nature and human or animal life together as one because then I feel I can relate to it. Now that I have studied all about the park I know I can relate to almost all of the statues. I feel though that I can relate more to the Trees of Life because, unlike the granite groups around the Monolith which are more abstract, they are very realistic. Vigeland did not just tell one story of life or one way of life, but many ways of life. He did not just show the 'happy perfect' life or the old 'beauty' (sculptures of people who were young and perfect). He showed reality to everyone even though it was really not accepted at that time. All but four of the statues in Vigeland Park are naked. He used figures that were realistic as portraying the human body of the young and the old, alike.
The same thing probably happens to other tourists that happened to me. They know nothing about the park's history or what it means, and they just walk through and see a huge amount of beautiful statues. Something I also found shocking was the fact that there are not many books in English on Vigeland Park or Vigeland himself. The books in Norwegian are more detailed about his life and why he did what he did. Since Norway is proud of his art work I thought there would be more material on him. Though unlike Edvard Munch, Vigeland is not internationally known. Norway for some reason has not wanted to share this man's works. If you have no previous knowledge of what the park is all about, it is still hard to decipher its meaning. I felt I could relate to the Trees of LIfe, but I had no idea why. I wanted to know why I had these feelings about people in trees. To find that out first, I had to take a look at the artist who created these beautiful statues, Gustav Vigeland.