Art in Kattem Kindergarten

Artist: Jon Aslak Fintland. Title: ‘Fire steinskulpturer’ 2012. Art consultant: Harald Wårvik.

A stone can be one of the nicest things a child can find in nature. The shape, colour and structure of the stone has a visual appeal, and it sits so softly in the hand and feels nice to touch. The children at Kattem Kindergarten have been sieving out nice, little stones from the sandbox for a long time. Now, they have some larger ones that they can touch, sit on, and jump on, from one to the other. Jon Aslak Fintland from Flekkefjord has moulded, sanded down and processed large granite boulders into enlarged copies of the nice little stones children put in their pockets and keep. These are too big to pick up, but they are nice to be greeted by every day, like an anchor through those years when kindergarten is the children’s home away from home. The simple and mundane qualities of the stone as an object has been emphasised in the placement of this artwork. It is not on a plinth or a column, or on raised terrain, but simply on a seemingly random spot on the ground – exactly where stones usually lie. In addition to these “natural” boulders, Fintland’s artwork includes an animal figure – a sitting monkey – demonstrating how hard, lifeless stone can be transformed into soft shapes and be brought to life.