Sand castles in the city. But of course!

Remember last year’s sand castles in the Buitenhof square and the accompanying eye-pokingly embarrassing video? Well, here is this year’s version built by our friendly neighbourhood truth-is-stranger-than-fiction institution, The World Sand Sculpting Academy.

Yes, the saaandcastles are back in the Buitenhof (pronounced BOW-tuh-HOFF… sort of).  This year they are in tribute to the 20th century Norwegian sculptor, Gustav Vigeland.   Summer (who was visiting at the time and had lived in Norway for a number of years) said, “Oh! Gustav Vigeland!”  And I was all, “Oh, yeaaah, Goosestuff Feegulschnitzel-MacSculpt-a-lot… who now?”  Actually, I had heard of Vigeland- I recognised this sculpture when I wikied him.  But I sure had to dust off the old brain cells to recall him from my undergrad Intro to Art History course.  The course where half the term was spent studying Neolithic cave paintings.  And the other half was spent getting caught up on the next 10 000 years’ worth of artwork.  I mean, really.  Sure, the course was fun at the time, but ten *cough* years later, although I do love art (especially modern paintings) all I can manage to say about most works I see is, “Ah, yes… A painting.  With… PAINT as the medium… fascinating.”  Of course I use my poshest accent: it makes me sound smart to those within earshot.  Fools.