2016-06-26

【Aiden in English】

        In science class, we learn that life is a cycle. Back to the basics, all organic items are recycled back into the earth, as decomposes, heat, and pressure crunch our bodies back to dust and nothingness. I understand it is life. For kids with Thanatophobia, however, it benefits no one. Imagine, a father thing to calm a crying child, saying, "it's okay son, 'cause when you die, the ants gonna crawl all o'er you and they gonna eat you! Then you gonna go into the ground, curl up, and never see the sun again!" Yeah, not the best idea, yet it is life, and we, as people mature, put this into random places. We study, worship, and, oddly, sculpt statues of this idea. 

        Oslo contains many odd artists. One made an iceberg out on the shallow harbor waters, calling it as a monument of floating glass and steel iceberg. The main feature would be the Vigeland Sculpture Park inside a naturalistic Frogner Park with special statues. The sculptor, Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), was fascinated with the idea of how dead people are absorbed back into the environment and "reborn", figuratively speaking. Although it sounds much like a religion, Vigeland was religious and the sculptures didn’t depict a certain religion. Some may say they represent reincarnation, which hints at Hinduism and Buddhism. However, Vigeland never revealed his religion to the public, since the only help he gave was how this meant a lot to his religion. So, we have a religion that deeply expresses death, which is a great lead to absolutely nowhere. The statues featured five figures, all of which were naked. They included babies, teens, middle-aged, old, and skeletons, all of which had the two genders. The sculptor had specifically designed them to have no clothes to symbolize the universal meaning of his art. In the park, three main attractions were hosted in the center: a pedestal, a fountain, and a bridge. Each one contained the same idea of recycling of our bodies. The first showed a ring of people from life to death. The child is born, and he sees his parents die. The statues expressed the true emotions of the people in the scene, as each one changed a theme of the overall picture. In the end, the child grows old and unsurprisingly dies. In the center of the ring rose a tall pillar or the Monolith that sat above the entire park. It measured 14 meters/46 feet in height. At the bottom was a group of ... dead people. At least, that's what I would assume since their arms were bent and their backs were probably broken. In the middle, it showed a struggling section of people climbing to the top, where they became children and babies and flew to ... wherever Vigeland wanted them to go. To this day, that destination is a mystery, and so is the meaning of the pillar all together. Many theorists have ideas, but nothing has been proven. 

        The other interesting idea, in my mind, was the dragons. Four statues marked four entrances to the park, each depicting a figure standing with a dragon touching his or her body. Two stood near the front gate, where one woman was standing with a dragon creeping up her back while the other was with the dragon held in front of her like she hated it. The guide explained that the dragon represented evil in whatever suture this was, as we Chinese are extremely infuriated, but nevertheless, it is what it was. The dragon creeping up the woman's shoulder symbolizes the acceptance of evil, and the other statue symbolizes the fight against the dark side. 

        The Vigeland Sculpture Park really does contain all the main aspects of a world religion. It is about an idea of what happens after death, a cycle of life, and an idea expressed to the people, leading them and telling them what and what not to do. It is a way of living, and Vigeland, although lived in the 18-1900s, expressed many ideas that should be followed today.

【红霞译文】

        科学课上我们学过生命循环，按照基本常识，一切有机物质必将回归自然，分解、加热乃至高压都能让人体化为灰烬，我明白死亡实为生命的延续。对于胆小怕死的幼童来说，解释过多反倒于事无补。试想当爹的为了安抚吓哭的孩子，说：“儿子想开点，等你百年之后，蚂蚁肯定跑来陪你，直到天荒地老！到那时你将化作一抔黄土，无声无息地蜷伏地下，再也无法重见天日！”唉，用这种方法教育孩子虽然并不可取，但是自然规律实际就是如此。随着年龄日趋长大思想逐渐成熟，朋友之间经常把“死”字当成调侃生活的素材，有人研究死亡，另有人敬畏死亡，更为离谱地，还有人美化死亡，用雕刻艺术尽情渲染生命终结。

        奥斯陆人才辈出，艺术家们在水位低浅的前海沿唾手雕琢起一座冰山──浮动的玻璃钢冰山，当然最具代表性的艺术作品应首推位于弗罗古纳尔自然公园内的维格兰雕塑群。就其造型构思而言，雕塑家古斯塔夫·维格兰（1869-1943）幻想死人如何被环境吐故纳新，又怎样“脱胎换骨”转世重生，尽管听起来带有宗教色彩，维格兰本身确实信教，但其作品并非局限在宗教范畴。或许有人会说，维格兰的雕塑表现生死轮回，隐含印度教及佛教思想，然而维格兰从未公开过个人信仰，仅仅表示创作过程有助于加深宗教意识，照此说来，人们信仰的就是宣扬死亡救赎的宗教，其终极目标难以实现。维格兰公园的雕像归为五类，它们浑身一丝不挂，人物对象包括儿童、青少年、成年、老年以及骷髅，并且男女参半。雕塑家之所以精心设计赤身裸体，无非在于体现大自然中形体与线条的艺术之真。整个公园主要把雕塑群分成三个景区：圆台阶、喷泉和石桥，每一景区都遵循周而复始的主题思想。第一个景区展示圈成圆圈的人们生死过程：婴儿诞辰之后目睹父母辞世，随着情节发展，每幅作品都表现出真实情感；最终孩子长大变老，无一例外地踏上通往坟墓的道路。圆台阶中央矗立着一个生命之柱，大约高达14米／46英尺，是公园制高点。生命之柱的底层由死人组成，至少我这么推测，因为他们手臂弯曲，后背脊梁骨折；在中间一层，民众苦苦挣扎，个个竭尽全力朝上爬，他们中不乏幼童婴儿，全部摆开姿态奔向……维格兰指定的地方，截至到目前为止，前方目的地不祥，这正是生命之柱的奥秘所在，为此招来不少理论家苦思冥想，但推敲结果一直无法得到证实。

        在我看来，另外一个极为有趣的构思就是大龙。公园四个入口处各有一幅雕像，每幅雕像都描述有关大龙抚摸人体的情景。前门有两条大龙：一条从背后伸出诡秘的双臂拥抱女人；另一条则从正面拥抱女人，好像招致女人不满。导游解释道，在这里大龙代表邪恶，当心别激起我们中国人民愤，估计维格兰对之缺乏了解。言归正传，前一个表示女人与恶魔同流合污；后一个则象征正义力量与黑暗势力进行殊死搏斗。

        维格兰雕塑公园集世界宗教思想之大成，将人死后所发生的事情、转世轮回以及人生在世该做的不该做的等全部用雕塑手法表达出来，无愧于为人处世的行动准则，尽管维格兰生活在十九──廿世纪，但他许多思想仍值得现代人学习。