Gullmaren naval dockyard, Skredsvik, Sweden
Sir Anselms ögon (Sir Anselm’s eyes), 2024
New permanent, public commission at the Gullmaren naval dockyard, Skredsvik, Sweden, for the Public Art Agency Sweden.
Katarina Löfström’s new public commission Sir Anselms ögon (Sir Anselm’s eyes) was inaugurated earlier this year at the Gullmaren naval dockyard in Skredsvik, Sweden. The site has a long maritime history and the work can be interpreted as both a reference to the shapes of sea marks, optical telegraphs and semaphores, or as two seeing eyes which never rests. In her practice, Löfström has often researched abstract symbols used for communication, or as direction marks.
The naval base educates clearance divers, whose role is to neutralize and clear mines, unexploded ordnance, booby traps, sabotage charges and terrorist bombs on lands and underwater. Despite the seriousness of the operations, a sense of humour is still present, and the work lends its title from the divers’ mascot’s name: Sir Anselm Dykén. When the education for the specialised divers started in the 1950’s, two officers were sent to train with the US navy. Jokingly, the divers were called “frog men”, and when the officers returned to Sweden they brought with them a rubber toy-frog which has since been a mascot for the divers.
The allusion to the frog is present in the work, both in the title and in the design of the circles that can be interpreted as eyes watching over the base and the landscape around Gullmarsfjorden. In her sketch proposal, Löfström describes how she was also inspired by research into post-traumatic stress disorder and forms of therapy that use eye movements. She intends the sculpture to be seen as a calming, light-hearted and unifying symbol for the place.
