Vändkorsfågel (Turnstile Bird)

A turnstile represents both a border and an opening. In the past, they were used to keep cattle in their enclosures while allowing people to pass through freely. In modern times, they’re probably most commonly used for letting authorized people in and keeping unauthorized people away from metro platforms and fenced workplaces. When did you last pass through a turnstile?

The artist Lars Spaak says that he got the idea for Turnstile Bird while on vacation with his family: We’d rented a cottage a short distance from the sea, and we had to trudge through enclosed pastures to get down to the water. Here came my first idea. Between the cottage and the pastures to the sea, we had to pass through simple turnstile gates – just two pieces of wood joined together to form a cross on a pole.

Many days then followed where I made plaster moulds of sculptures until it was time to bring them in to the foundry. Sandblasting, grinding, patination and waxing were the final jobs.

Originally, the sculpture moved. Spaak used a front axle hub from a car so that the bronze cross would rotate like a real turnstile. The turnstile was later locked into place so that no one would pinch themselves.

Lars Spaak lives in Lillkyrka on the northern banks of Hjälmaren and has over fifty public artworks on display throughout the country. His sculptures have an abstract and often ornamental design language. Just as in Turnstile Bird, many of his works are characterized by rhythmically symmetrical shapes that are broken up and varied in different ways.