Shark Cow Bathtub
1993
Artscape Nordland, Hai Ku Badekar
Within a few years the shark was damaged and the bathtub was swept away. A new cast was taken from a real Blue shark and placed there and the actual enamel bath replaced the previous cast-iron tub that lay below the ocean.
Nordland is located on the coast of Norway just south of the Arctic Circle.
Artists were invited to make a permanent work along the coast. Hai ku Badekar / Shark Cow Bathtub was located in the Kommune of Somna.
Somna is a narrow strip of land held between high mountains to the east and ocean to the west; the main occupations there are dairy farming and fishing. The Nordland coastline is incredibly beautiful with areas such as the Lofoten Islands famous world-wide for the drama of its landscape.
The choice of location for Hai Ku Badekar was intentionally undramatic so that the sculpture would not impose on the natural beauty. The site was a low slope of rock in a small harbour where a ferry passed every hour heading into the fjord. One could walk several hundred metres to encounter the work or see it at a distance from the ship.
The work was made of three parts: A large pink granite boulder, which sat erratic-like, with a cow-udder carved on top – the teats proffered skywards.
A bronze shark with a pair of female breasts lay nearby, as if stranded. A small cast-iron bathtub (cast from a childhood bath) was positioned on the rocks where the tide would rise and fall around the small domestic vessel, placed with the knowledge that in time storms would rip it from the rocks.
List of works (click to expand)
Shark Cow Bathtub, 1993, Granite, bronze and cast iron bath, Boulder with cow's udder: 75 X 75 cm, Shark: 200 cm, Bathtub: 60 x 110 x 57 cm