by sematikotemo
Couple of weeks ago it became common known that Stange most likely will have the biggest sperm cell in the world with its stunning 11,5 meters. The artist behind, Linda Bakke, is saying that this artwork will show the people what Stange is. As she have said in different interviews: Stange is one of Norway’s biggest agriculture municipals, and besides that they are also a big on Ox-sperm. The artwork will reflect both those sides.
The inhabitants however, have very different thoughts. The main critics is that sex and likewise is kind of “taboo” to talk about. What will parents tell their children? As Bjarne Lang-Ree from Stange said to NRK: “We probably have to call it a tadpole in front of the children”. However among the politicians it looks like everyone agrees that this will be great. It will put Stange on the map and most likely contribute to a higher cash-flow in the area.
The project itself has a budget of 950.000 norwegian kroner, where private companies have agreed to pay a total of 168.000 of it. The sculpture itself will cost 800.000 kroner. That leaves 150.000 kroner to the artist and other expenses. Stange municipal have agreed to contribute with the rest of the money. I don’t think 150.000 is much money for 4-5 months work. On the other side its not less money either. I thinks it’s a fine amount to make the artist keep the autonomous sight towards art.
Its hard to tell if this artwork is autonomous or not, especially since its mostly funded by the municipal and its purpose is to be exposed to the public. The artwork will be placed alongside E6, which means it will be visible for everyone driving through Stange. I think this piece belongs in what Dag Solhjell calls the inclusive circuit, because it is meant to be something to watch while driving. The intention behind this is not to earn a lot of money. Based on Linda’s earlier works I think this is the case. Linda is most commonly known as the author behind “Storelgen” (Bigmoose). The whole purpose behind that artwork was to reduce the amount traffic accidents in the area. Rv3 was known to be a very boring road, which again lead to tired drivers and further on to more accidents. Storelgen alongside with other mooselike artworks have made this number reduce a lot.
Another thing about the sperm cell is that it will be made of towed metal. The positive side about this is that it doesn’t need much maintenance. It makes it cheap for the municipal to take care of the artwork compared to others.
Personally I think it will be a great artwork, because it triggers a lot of emotions. A lot of people are critical to it, and that’s what makes it good. If everybody is happy about, what would then be left to discuss about the artwork?
Making sense of art and design industries 