The Christmas Tree Sandbox

Oulu Art Museum (permanently installed in the garden in the back of the museum) 1991

This was my first outdoor work. I wanted to test ways in which a public sculpture can function as a social meeting place. 

For the summer exhibition Zet in Oulu, I made a sandbox for children in the shape of a fir tree. It was placed on a pedestrian street close to an ice-cream stand, which would make it easy for people to have an ice cream and sit down on the sand box and relax. In the sandbox were play-tools in primary colours, making the artwork look like a Christmas tree.