Som ovan så nedan (As Above so Below)

Ever since a trip to the Suzhou Gardens in China in 1993, I’ve been very interested in both Chinese Taoism and Buddhism. In both of these philosophies, it is believed that the great events on Earth are a reflection of celestial forces in motion. Everything in the cosmos is in constant, often circular motion: galaxies, the Milky Way, the eight planets, and so on. When the celestial bodies move, these movements are reflected in changes on our planet Earth.

The celestial force that sees and watches over humans is often symbolized by an all-seeing eye, or the eye of God. This is an eye that is neither positive nor negative. It merely sees the truth, unaffected by the different values of different times.

This is how the sculptor Ann Carlsson Korneev explains the shape and title of her sculpture. The two symmetrical shapes that enclose the centre of the stone can represent heaven and earth, and in the middle is the all-seeing eye. The shapes that form heaven and earth could also be the eyelids of the divine eye. The entire figure is carved from a single block of stone. Everything is connected.

The sculpture’s shapes are definite and simple but still open for interpretation. The all-seeing eye is depicted as a shiny pupil surrounded by a swirling iris. But doesn’t it also look like a sun on the horizon? Imagine how much the sun has seen during its travels across the firmament. So too can our associations expose different layers of meaning in the sculpture. Like a double-exposed photograph, new and dreamy contexts can emerge. Do you see anything more in the stone shapes?