The garden brings together a series of my sculptural works, done over a thirty five year span. The works in ice, water and grass etc., minimal and archetypal, are, each in their way, metaphors of life. They have references to the cosmos, to nature and to human nature. Thus the title, The Garden of Life. The garden covers slightly less than one hectare. Its shape and its plant material suggest a symbolic brain. The brain is where we conjure up our symbols and metaphors of life and so the form seemed most appropriate. 

The plant material of the garden seeks to imitate the dense coils of the brain. (What plant material is used would depend on where the garden is built). Narrow paths wind through the vegetation. The garden itself is surrounded on either side by a taller forest. 

The brain, like much of nature, has a natural symmetry. To tie the garden into the larger cosmic order the central axis orients east and west, to sunrise and to sunset. The central axis is also defined by a continuous reflecting pool, a metaphoric river, which flows ambiguously in 3 directions: to the west to the open sea, to the east into a cave and on into the bowels of the earth, and along its entire course, over double dams, in on itself. 

At the end of the diagonal arrival, the first work encountered is the ice covered Ur Monument set in a domed cave. The piece acts both as sentinel and latent fertility symbol. (Like the other ice covered works in the garden it runs on a compressor that freezes the moisture in the air). And at the central axis, to your left, freely suspended at the back of the cave is the work In the Beginning, an ice covered sphere. 

Looking west, emerging out of the symbolic river, is the sculpture Birth, a cross between a sphere and an egg, done in frosty cast glass. It was inspired by the first verse of the Kalevala which tells of the creation of the world. 

To the right of Birth is the Romeo and Juliette fountain with its free standing wall covered in ivy. An homage to the first erotic sparks of life. And to the left of Birth the sculpture Et in Arcadia Ego a cube seamlessly covered in grass. Also set in its own reflecting pool it has a large ice covered wall behind it. The sculpture takes its name from a painting by Poussin of a cube like grave in a beautiful landscape.

Further west, paired on each side of the central reflecting pool are a series of works that, like the left and right side of the brain, suggest a dichotomy. On the left are three smaller pools that contain closed forms (the circle, the square and a circular chasm into which water gushes) and on the other side three pools that contain open forms (the spiral, the cross and a column of water vapor that dissolves into the sky). The geometric shapes are carved into the water via double dams. 

Two other works embedded into the greenery on either side of the central reflecting pool, embody another dichotomy. On the left is the Plus and Minus fountain. Out of the top of the raised plus sign water wells out into the surrounding pool only to pour into the minus sign, a slit in the surface of the pool. On the right side of the axis is the Dance of Life fountain. Dancing jets of water rise up in a circle of out of a low spray of water mist. The work was inspired by August Malmströms Älvalek a well-known 19th century Swedish painting of fairies dancing in the morning mist.

The focal point looking west and silhouetted against the sea, is the sculpture The Tree of Life, a 4 meter high T shape in steel, with water cascading like heavy rain out of its outstretched arms. Beyond that the symbolic river ends in a waterfall over the stone retaining wall and then cascades the short distance to the sea.