Ode to Measurement, 2025
Skeppsholmen Island, Stockholm, Sweden
Inspired by a 250-year-old history of measuring sea-levels, Ode to Measurement, 2025, comprises two cast-bronze sculptures placed in the waters just near the mareograph’s activity at Skeppsholmen. Rising gracefully from the sea, at four meters tall, an elongated diamond enclosure atop a long pole demarcated with horizontal notches recalls mysterious tools found in the tombs of Norse women described as “seers”, whose precise function is unknown. Adjacent, and floating on the water, a flat arc comprising divaricating lines refers to pre-compass instruments used by 11th century navigators to measure latitude and wind from their ships. For more than two months, Ode to Measurement will punctuate Stockholm’s natural landscape and honor the site where sea level has been steadily recorded longer than anywhere else on earth. In return, nature will likewise leave her mark on Mirlesse’s sculpture. As the water levels rise this summer, the vane will become increasingly submerged, while water, air and salt slowly weather the bronze patina over time.