The refugee king: Karl XII
KKungsträdgrden, the kings’s garden, is one of Stockholm’s top attractions, and during the summer, concerts are held. During the winter, a Christmas market held there on the way to the old town (Kungsträdgrden, 2020). I had to meet a friend in one of Kungsträdgrden’s cafe bars, “Teahuset,” which is located in the middle of the garden. I had a front-row seat to a green brass statue. I went up to look at it while waiting for my friend. It is named after Sweden’s King “Karl XII.” I will delve into my relationship with the Karl XII public statue. I was curious about this king! Since I’ve been living in Stockholm for several years, my knowledge of Swedish history is limited, to say the least. I was perplexed as to why this king is such an important figure. I was wondering if I could figure this out before I looked into any online sources. Before using any digital tools, I wondered, does a public art statue inform me, as a medium of display, without any digital tools?
Media and Ideology
Several frameworks will be used to guide my analysis and observations. The first framework is based on Mitchel’s argument about visual culture as a field that studies art while refusing to take vision experience for granted while also critiquing, theorising, and historicising the visual process as a whole (Mitchell, 2005, p.264 ). While we experience art primarily through our visual senses, other senses contribute to our overall experience. The medium through which art is experienced not only provides a unique mix of materials and technology, but it also contains social spaces, habits, and skills. Because it is the ratio of senses elicited, all visual media could be considered mixed media and no visual media as such.
Ideology is defined as a set of values and beliefs that are woven together in a cultural and social context to define how life should be lived (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018). Althusser, a French philosopher, goes on to say that without ideology, people will be unable to think about reality, and that through ideology, we can represent meanings of our reality (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018). On the other hand, dominant ideologies are presented as common sense and are always passed down by the ruling class, according to the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s “Hegemony concept.” In contrast to the domination model, the Hegemony concept suggests a process of negotiation between social classes within society. An arena in which meaning is constantly challenged, either to confirm or oppose a dominant ideology and present a new version (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018).
Stuart Hall, a British-Jamaican sociologist, has three positions on how we decode messages and meaning cultural images or artefacts in this coded relationship between art producers and audiences through images, text, and social context (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018). (1)A dominant-hegemonic reading communicated unquestionably from the producer to the viewers. (2) the negotiated reading, in which viewers consciously or unconsciously question the dominant message and interpret it in the context of their own cultural and social beliefs. (3) the opposing reading, which can dismiss or alter the dominant message (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018).
Finally, the ideal monument or memorial is a socially significant component of constructing social identity. Remembering a past loss — memorial or triumph symbol — through a monument (Alderman et al., 2020). While we strive for continuity in the past through our present, heritage can be deceptive. The full picture of history has not been well preserved, and one’s heritage is a denial of another constructed reality. Monuments and memorials play an important role in the formation of a sense of belonging and social identity (Alderman et al., 2020).
It can lead to a series of identity conflicts. The geographers read four metaphors into the monuments and memorials: the text metaphor, the arena metaphor, the wound metaphor, and the performance metaphor. In this paper, I will use the arena to depict the monument and memorial as a social and political arena where negotiation, battle over the meaning of history, and the commemoration process take place (Alderman et al., 2020).
Description of the object without digital sources
From the bottom up, a large metal sculpture of a man “appears” to be larger than a life-size human. The statue is firmly anchored to a rectangular cement block. You must tilt your head up in order to interact with it. His face is beardless and resembles that of a young boy. Wearing a heavy winter soldier coat. A round set of buttons closes the coat. In his gloved right hand, he wields a sword. His index finger on his left hand points in a direction. The boots are a few inches below the knee, with a tiny rotating metal gear on the back of the heel, almost identical to the cowboy boots seen in wild western movies.
The bronze or copper status appears to have corroded from the environment, giving it a green appearance. Birds perched on the statue, with clear splatters of animal waste covering the statue’s head and the rest of the statue. The statue is located in a garden with pedestrian paths leading to it. A commercial refreshing drinks and snacks bar, as well as tiny tables, occupy one path. While the other paths are linked to main streets, they take you from the city center to the old town. Surrounded by a flowery green garden and a few benches. while you sit, you can hear cutlery clinking from the snack bar, pedestrians’ feet squashing the pavement, and ships docking in the harbour all mingling together.
A text marker mounted on a stand stands in front of the statue’s cement base. Its height almost reaches the waist level; to read the text, you must change your posture and almost bow down.
The text marker on the statue reads the king’s name and reign length, who sculpted it, when it was erected, and who was on the committee that did it. According to the marker, the statue was erected 150 years after his death by a committee and a public fund.
Analysis without digital expedition
Despite having lived in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, for nearly a decade, I have no idea who Karl XII, King of Sweden, is. I assumed the statue was significant because it was in the middle of a tourist attraction. The features on the king’s face gave him the appearance of being young. He’s pointing to what, in the geographical context, is a Swedish bank? I couldn’t see how a Swedish bank fit into that picture. The text marker lacked a description of accomplishments or conquests to explain why I should remember him as a significant Swedish king in a tourist attraction sight.
The cafe bar serves coffee and pastry were of poor quality while guests sat at the bar in front of the statue. The experience made me question the king’s importance! Because the average quality of Swedish snacks and coffee is exceptional. yet the view is directly on an important statue, I assumed the location would be of higher significance. The statue’s dominant-hegemonic reading reflects an incomplete picture of what the statue is supposed to mean, is it triumph or commemoration? The space attempts to give the statue significance by placing it in a tourist-friendly location. The sculptor attempts to glorify the person by giving him a masculine posture and a sense of determination with his left hand’s assertion towards a direction.
On the other hand, the text revealed as many details about the sculptor as it did about the project’s financiers! I think, This diminishes the significance and importance of the sculptor’s work or the king. The 150-year gap between the king’s death and the erection of the project led me to believe that there is widespread public affection for him! … I kept asking myself, “Is it a memorial or a monument?” Is he a victorious or a betrayed king? This is where Google comes in. In some ways, the texts appeared neutral.
In the following section, I will expand the text representation of the statue through a digital medium, thereby expanding the sensory aspect of the art through mixed media. Journalists, blogs, and art history accounts are all examples. What would I find on the spot as a normal tourist or casual online surfer? Observation of an object following a brief digital expedition
After a few clicks, I discovered that the statue is indeed a sociopolitical hot spot where a hegemony on what it means social groups is at odds.
So what did the internet say?
At the age of 15, he was crowned king. fought in various wars against overwhelming odds As a wounded king in the battle of Poltava against his Russian adversary, he sought refuge in the ottoman empire under Sultan Ahmad III during the empire’s tulip era. During his reign, he ruled Sweden for 5 years (Gustafsson & Gjörloff, 2013). He returned to Sweden and continued his wars against his alleged enemies until he was mysteriously shot in the head. It is worth noting that the Ottoman sultan Ahmad III was arguably persuaded by King Karl XII to wage war against the Russian king, and the Sultan emerged victorious, almost taking over Moscow if not for the Safadis threat to the area who knows if there would have been a russian empire? (Gustafsson & Gjörloff, 2013).
The construction of the statue began in 1868. Liberal journalists and politicians held a competition to see who would be the best candidate for the job. This competition was won by sculptor Joahn Peter Molin, a well-known Swedish sculptor. It is claimed that he aimed the sculpture, hand gesture, at Russia because it is said to be his, the king, main adversary (Hellander, Adolf (1848–1906, 2020)).
Today’s accounts are dissatisfied with the statue because right-wing nationalists use The King as a symbol of their nationalistic glory days. Furthermore, he is viewed as a symbol of opposition. On the other hand, activists voices demand that he be physically replaced by a contemporary figure such as Greta Thunberg (Björinge, 2020). Other accounts stated, the statue was erected in response to a great power threatening Sweden’s sovereignty, namely Russia, and it was a symbol of independence (Sjöström, 2020).
Second round of analysis after digital expedition
I definitely had a new perspective on the statue. For right-wing groups, the king is a source of fascination. The answer to whether the statue is a memorial or a monument is hazy, for them he is a symbol of national identity. This statue wields incredible social power. In the social and cultural arena, an affirmation of hegemony and counter-hegemony between ideologies. The original ideas are being challenged.While it demonstrates the concept of heritage and the selectivity of which aspects of the past are in focus. The intended dominant reading of those who created this statue has almost completely vanished. I would argue that the majority of regular visitors to this area, if not average Swedish residents, are tourists in the first place.
The fact that this king was a refugee during his conquest of the Ottomans prompted a reflection on nationalistic party discourse (Gustafsson & Gjörloff, 2013). Ironically, the statue was erected during Sweden’s famine, which lasted only from 1867 to 1869, party due to his juvenile egoistic wars against the region and draining the country’s resources. He is a king, a european king, fought wars for his supremacy and attempted to build a name in the history books, ended up a king who seeks a refuge from nation which is now considered the ultimate adversary for the king’s cheerleaders (Svensson, 2015). It paints a picture of an unsettling era, it is arguable kicked off waves of migrations from Sweden to the United States and other nations.
The statue’s meaning before the digital exploration was ,an important king who must have accomplished great things, then the meaning was drastically altered as a result of this. Ironic facts about him being a refugee, given that it is currently the hottest topic on the agenda of right-wing nationalists. The fact that this art was erected by a public fund during a time of national famine is morally questionable in and of itself!
The negotiations with the dominant message are now in an active state. The priming of my values and ideologies came to the fore when analysing this text and art. The accounts are nationalistic; they see a great king who won wars through their ideology. Other accounts with a global identity, on the other hand, see the statue as a misrepresentation of their ideology. Which agrees with Althusser’s ideology concept of seeing and interpreting the world through our representation. it has become an arena in which the hegemony of social groups is constantly shifting.
Conclusion
Decoding the artist’s messages through image, social context, and text, as well as as an audience, is a dynamic process. Visual art functions in a variety of ways. The statue and art have a status, partly, because of their spatial context. The object’s power is contested by its social context.
Before the digital experience, the public art feels denotative, like an icon for a figure. The digital tools contextualize the item. Incorporating digital tools with public art will improve understanding of the message that needs to be conveyed. The issue is how the producers want to encode their message? How you control the meaning and should you have some degree of control over the meaning? With the abundance of digital tools, it is difficult to control the message, so be a part of it by providing the tools right on site. A QR code, for example, that takes you to an introduction to the art would enhance the visual experience. What, after all, is the point of public art? Who is benefiting? Is it the public or the financiers? Should we stop calling it public art? During this whole project of public art, the public was not consulted, however lately should we allow a public art to gain a democratic process of inclusion?
References
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Björinge, J. (2020, June 16). DEBATT: Byt ut Karl XII mot en staty av Greta. Aftonbladet. https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/a/Wbw3jg/byt-ut-karl-xii-mot-en-staty-av-greta
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Sjöström, O. (2020, June 17). Karl XII-statyn var ett demokratiskt projekt. Www.Aftonbladet.Se. https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/a/EW67lP/karl-xii-statyn-var-ett-demokratiskt-projekt
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