Kungsparken is in an area that originally formed part of Malmo castle fortifications. The area became Malmo's first public park in 1872 and was landscaped by the Danish landscape architect O Hoegh Hansen. He chose to layout the park in the style of an English Park.
There had been a classical style statue of Diana in the Bath in the park, but at some point had been removed and subsequently lost. As part of a major regeneration scheme for the park in 2008, The Swedish Sculptor Ernst Billgren(born November 18 1957) was commissioned to sculpt a new Diana statue for the park.
Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon and birthing but was also associated with wild animals and woodland and had the power to talk to and control animals. Ernst Billgren’s design has concentrated on her association with wild animals, rather than as her role as huntress, indeed she has left her quiver lying on the ground with no arrows in it.
The statue shows a rather abstract figure of Diana, surrounded by 15 running and leaping deer. The sculpture covers an area of 9 metres by 3 metres. The effect of movement of the deer has been cleverly achieved by having them all at different heights, just as a real crowd of running deer would be. In some cases the deer are partly buried, which would be impossible in reality, but still somehow manages to convey the idea of movement.
The body of Diana is made up of a badger supporting a family of bears, which in turn support pigs. On the top of her head is a swan with its neck hanging down her back representing a ponytail. The intention is that the form of Diana will be more obvious in darkness especially as the statue will be lit from the bottom of the statue.
It’s possible to walk amongst all the deer, and this was intended by the sculptor to encourage people to feel part of the work. Indeed children in particular seem to really enjoy playing with it and petting the deer.
Overall it’s a very unusual, but effective design.
This
website tells us the following about the sculptor.
“Ernst Billgren was born in Stockholm in 1957 and studied at Valands Art Academy from 1982 to 1987. Billgren's oeuvre is characterized by great diversity, which is fairly unique in the Swedish art world. He is a painter, printmaker, sculptor and writer, commentator and film and stage artist. His artistic output spans a wide range of disciplines, ranging from painting, sculpture, stage design, furniture design to literature, films and music. Within the different areas to find a motivisk continuity, which is recognizable in his investigations of nature painting, the national romantic and mythological. With great skill working Billgren with different materials such as mosaics, wood, bronze, cement, tile and glass. Characteristic of Ernst Billgren his reckless way to set common perceptions of what is good art on its head. He mixes beautiful painting with kitsch and let animals and birds in finrummen as if it never existed any boundaries. Ernst Billgren leaves no one indifferent.”