Museums, part 3a: The ABBA Museum

[My husband, Tim, felt that the ABBA Museum deserved a post of its own. Herewith, is a guest post.]

If you visit Seattle, take the underground tour, visit Smith Tower, take a Duck Tour, go to the Market. If you come on a weekday, go to the Starbucks on the 40th floor of Columbia Tower.

And if you visit Stockholm, see the ABBA Museum, an experience the likes of which you will never have outside of Sweden. 

Mamma Mia! The ABBA Museum was bright and noisy — from the ticket line at the beginning, down into the Waterloo Eurovision exhibit:

Right through to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop’s Muppets appearing in The Last Video:

They had lots of ABBA costumes and an exhibit about costumes — and the costumes were pretty wacky. They had a room full of gold records - and gold cassette tapes, if you can believe that.

Shiny things everywhere!

I did learn a few things, though.

For instance, all the members of ABBA were established pop stars when the group formed. They all had professional gigs and some recording contracts before they started performing together.

They were doing music videos (then called “promotional films”) long before they became hip - and even required - in the late 1970s.

There was an exhibit about ABBA’s recording studio and how they worked together, trying out different lines and tunes and finding things that work as songs. Apparently, the order of battle is that the male members of the group wrote the songs and the girls did the singing - and the girls’ voices were instruments of music, like other instruments.

Which brings up an interesting point — do pop songs need to make sense?

“Dancing Queen” would never have been written by an American pop band (or British, I suspect). Teenage girls do not refer to themselves as “Queens,” you do not look for a place that “plays the rock music”, and what you’re doing is not “jive.”

Or take my get-drunk-and-fix-your-resume-song, “Super Trouper.” Nobody would say “super trouper.” I don’t know why. They just wouldn’t. And being bummed out that you’re on a concert tour where everybody screams and adores you — that is so far beyond being a First World Problem (FWP) that words fail me.

Nevertheless, I guarantee you, play this song on a loop and drink some red wine, and you’ll be ready for a new job.

But never mind — the ABBA museum has music and gold records and lots of other shiny things and it’s fun and you should go! Yes, YOU— because, dig it — you’re the DANCING QUEEN (oh yeah!)

Impressions of Sweden: Musems, part 3

After our visit to Växjö, Tim and I took the train back to Stockholm for the last 2-1/2 days of our trip to Sweden.

Feeling more familiar with where things were and how to get there, we purchased two Stockholm cards, each good for 48 hours from the time of activation. I had already made a list of various museums that we might go to, and the number of metro trips we might be taking. We decided it was worth the investment, and this did prove to be true — even more so than I anticipated. In addition to giving us free admission to enough museums to make it worth the price, we ended up using it more than planned for public transportation.

The cards were activated with our first T-bana ride to Södermalm at about 2:30 pm, to the room we'd reserved.

If we thought the first hotel room was small, this one was even smaller.

Calling it a "hotel" is being generous. I'd describe it more as a low-budget hostel. But it was perfectly adequate for the two nights we were there. All we really needed was a place to sleep.

After checking in, we backtracked to Gamla Stan to go to the Royal Armory. This turned out to have a greater variety of exhibits than I would have guessed. In addition to arms and weapons, it included carriages, clothes, and various information about Swedish royalty and history.

After dinner, we went to Fotografiska, a photography museum. The main exhibit there was one we had seen featured in many posters around Stockholm, "Genesis" by Sebastião Salgado. His photographs were stunning and amazing — and numerous. As I mentioned in a previous post, Swedish museums seem to like to make their exhibits exhaustively inclusive — which can make them somewhat exhausting to view.

 The next day, Tuesday, July 8, we visited the Nordic Museum, the Abba Museum, the Outdoor History Museum, and the Modern Art Museum.

At the Nordic Museum, there were — once again — many, many exhibits with many, many things to see — clothes, home furnishings, textiles, an exhibit about the Sami (formerly known as the Lapps) to list but four. Museum fatigue, indeed.

The Nordic Museum

Statue of Gustav Vasa in main hall at Nordic Museum

The ceiling of the main hall

The floor of the main hall

There was an English translation, something along the lines of "Why are you not on Facebook?"

I believe we ate lunch at the museum cafe, to re-fortify ourselves before heading to our next destination, the ABBA museum, which was a good respite from all the high-minded, public museums.

Being a privately-owned museum, admission was not included as part of the Stockholm Card, nor was photography allowed inside. Good, kitschy fun, nonetheless.

Next, we briefly visited the Outdoor History Museum, but were less than impressed. It was also a rather warm afternoon to being walking around a lot outside.

Last for the day, the Modern Art Museum, featuring an exhibit of painting by Nils Dardel. Many paintings, interesting to look at, but the class I took in modern art, I still haven't really developed a liking for much of it.

The next day, Wednesday, July 9, we had until 2:00 or so before our Stockholm cards expired. Before even checking out of our "hotel," we took our suitcases to the Central Station and stowed them in lockers. Then back to Södermalm to check out.

Our first stop of the day was to the Sky View, something Tim had found. Think the Space Needle, but round.

Starting up

The other "car" coming down

Passing in the middle

The view from the top of the world's largest spherical building.

Heading back down

Then back to Gamla Stan to tour the Royal Palace (former royal residence, now used only on formal state occasions), the Treasury (crown jewels), and the Tre Kronor (what's left of the original castle, located underground). You would think there is a connection between the name of the castle and the fact that the official emblem of Sweden is three crowns, but it seems to be coincidental.

Impressions of Sweden: Växjö och Museer, del två (Växjö and Museums, Part 2)

In Växjö, there is a complex near downtown called the Kulturparken that included the Smålands Museum, the Swedish Glass Museum and the House of Emigrants.

After we all arrived in Växjö on Friday, July 4, my sister and I took a walk down there to take a look around.

We located the museum buildings, and also saw some other interesting things.

Some buildings with lawns for roofs.

Apparently, this is a traditional type of roof, and does not mean that the building is neglected and derelict. Unlike the house across the street and down a couple houses, when we moved into our house back in 2009. The elderly lady who had formerly resided there had been unable to properly maintain it. Consequently, various types of vegetation had decided to make their home on her roof. We called it the Hobbit House. It was demolished one week in October when we just happened to be out of town on vacation. The lot sat vacant for a good two years or more, until it was finally cleared and a new home constructed last year.

But I digress.

The other fun and cool thing we saw was a disco ball on Växjösjön (Växjö Lake). 

The thing it most immediately brought to mind for both of us was some Christmas ornaments our parents gave us one year when we were kids.

It also revolved, as seen in this video.

On Sunday, Palma and I visited the museums in the Kulturparken.

At the House of Emigrants, the emphasis was on the experience of Swedish emigrants arriving in America and their experiences there -- rather than on the political, economic, and cultural climate in Sweden that might have prompted them to leave, which would have been of more interest to us, personally.

There was also this kind of strange and weirdly creepy and off-putting exhibit of photographs called "Purity." Here is the description from the website: "Photographer David Magnusson has photographed and interviewed participants in 'Purity balls' in the United States. These balls are a ceremonial rite that leads many to raise their eyebrows. At the prom the daughters promise their fathers 'purity' and that they will remain chaste until they marry. Fathers promise in turn to protect their daughters."

Yeah, I definitely raised my eyebrows. I'm sorry, but those photos look like some sort of incestuous bridal photographs.

In an interesting juxtaposition, there was another exhibit in the Smålands Museum called "Secret Love," described thusly: "In Secret Love more than 150 works of art by 24 contemporary artists are presented. They are united in the desire to give visual expression to taboo love, and by the interest in subjects that in China and many other parts of the world are loaded, such as sexual orientation, lust, and gender identity."

However, the Glass Museum was awesome!

Again, it was a little too dim inside to take good photographs. But I did manage to get one.

Coming from an area of the planet that is dominated by Dale Chihuly and his style of glass art, it was refreshing to see other representations of the art form.

Impressions of Sweden: Museums, Part 1

There are A LOT of museums in Stockholm.

During our time there, we managed to visit several of them.

Our trip to Sweden had three parts to it. Not including travel days, we spent two days in Stockholm, two days in Växjö, and then about two-and-a-half more days in Stockholm.

The first stay in Stockholm, we were kind of getting a sense of the city and how to navigate around in it. Stockholm has an excellent, well-integrated public transit system of trains, subways, trams, and buses. In Stockholm, the center of this activity is the Central Station. We bought an Access card to use on the subway, or T-bana (short for Tunnelbana).

The first museum we visited was the Vasa Museum, devoted to everything archeologists had learned from the excavation of this ship called the Vasa that had sunk on its maiden voyage ion 1628, after sailing only 1300 meters. Its location at the bottom of Stockholm harbor was unknown for about 300 years. In 1956, it was rediscovered and salvage efforts began. A major reason it was so well preserved is because there are no shipworms in the brackish water where it sank.

There were two things I noticed about the Vasa Museum, two features it had in common with other museums we visited: (1) the Swedes like their skeletons, and (2) Swedish museums are thorough and inclusive. In the course of excavating the Vasa, the remains of many of the people who died when the ship sank were recovered, and several of these skeletons were duly exhibited with what information could be gleaned about their lives and places in society.

It was hard to take pictures inside the museum, because it was so dark. I'm not sure what their policy on flash photography was — it seems like I did see some flash, mostly from smartphones — but I tried not to use flash on my camera. I did manage to get a couple of decent pictures, though.

In addition to all the interesting stuff to be seen inside, the building itself is really cool, and very distinctive, as you can see in this picture from Wikipedia.

Our second day in Stockholm, we visited the History Museum and toured Parliament.

Like the Vasa Museum, the History Museum also had a fair number of skeletons on display, with explanatory text, and also included *a lot* of things to look at in their exhibits. Their main exhibit during our visit was about the Vikings. What I found most interesting was how the exhibit examined how the popular concept of "the Viking" has changed, depending on the cultural and political climate of the time.

(A side note: pretty much all the museums included English translations of the exhibit text.)

The tour of the Riksdag (Parliament building) was interesting for a couple of reasons. For one, we had toured the provincial Parliament building in Victoria, B.C., a few years ago, and also, we had recently finished watching all three seasons of a Danish show called "Borgen," that revolved around Danish politics, sort of like a Danish version of "The West Wing."

(You can take a virtual tour here.)

Sweden used to have a bicameral legislature, but in 1971 changed it to a unicameral body. The tour guide (a young woman who spoke very good English) described the various political parties, discussed proportional representation, and outlined the process by which bills get passed.

Tim asked her if the Swedish king was allowed to come to Parliament whenever he wanted. When we were in Victoria, they made a big thing about how the English king isn't allowed to visit Parliament without an invitation, because of the shenanigans of Charles I which resulted in the English Civil War.

Also of particular note was where she told us about how the chamber for the unicameral body was built over the Bank Hall and how the structural beams were left exposed to illustrate how the new was build on top of the old.

La Conner Quilt Museum

I have been meaning to write up a post about out visit to the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum for about a week now, but am only now getting to it.

My mother-in-law had just returned from some time in California, and 4 of the 5 siblings were in the area, so an outing was arranged more or less half way between Bellingham and Seattle — La Conner, which among other attraction features the abovementioned Museum.

I urge all my quilty friends in the area to take a day and go see the exhibit of art quilts by Marianne Burr before it ends on June 29. Photography was not allowed, but I will take the liberty of borrowing the promotional photo from the museum's web site.

 

I urge you to go to her web site and see more of her work, as well as a brief description of her process.

Marianne happened to be there at the museum, and I had the opportunity to chat with her, see her working on a piece, and handle and examine some samples.

The other two exhibits were "Color in the Great Depression" and "Suzanis and Crazy Quilts," also ending June 29.

Photography was allowed of those two exhibits, of which I freely availed myself. Since the museum is housed in an old mansion, the rooms were often too small to back up enough to get the whole quilt in the frame. But I did my best. Herewith is a sampling.

"Fans with Green Centers." 1930, maker unknown.

"Blockhouse." 1930, Josie Teeter Schlotterback.

"Mosaic." 1930, maker unknown.

"Rose of Sharon." 1950, maker unknown.

"Circle Star with 8 Point Star." 1940, Jose Teeter Schlotterback.

The third exhibit featured suzanis and related works.

BIMA

In the years that we have been together, Tim and I have taken a number of ferry trips to a variety of destinations — Vashon Island, Friday Harbor, Bremerton, Bainbridge Island.

Personally, I like to space out my trips back to the same place, because usually there's not anything new or different to see. But when Tim suggested that we take the ferry from downtown Seattle over to Bainbridge Island to visit the new Museum of Art, I was all for it.

You can't miss it. The location is ideal. You'd have to go out of your way to not walk past it on the way from the ferry dock to the downtown area.

Unexpectedly, admission is free (though I did make a donation as we left). Also, the museum has a very liberal policy on photography. When I inquired, they said I was free to take pictures of anything and everything, so long as I did not use flash.

The museum's focus is more on arts and crafts, kind of like the Bellevue Art Museum, rather than fine art like the Seattle Art Museum. Although we have a membership at the SAM and enjoy going there, some of the exhibits there don't engage me. Even though I have a slightly better understanding of Modern Art from taking art history while I was at Shoreline Community College, it's not something I generally find myself liking.

At BIMA, however, even some of the more abstract pieces felt more accessible to me. Perhaps because there was some resemblance to recognizable forms.

Petroglyphs by Glenda Guilmet

Some were more abstract but still evocative.

Tsunami by Tracy Lang

Generally, I guess I have to say that I have a greater appreciation for art in which I can see a mastery of technique necessary to create the work in question.

Ms. Susuma II by Shawn Nordfors

Contemporary Man by Shawn Nordfors

by Heikki Seppa

by Heikki Seppa

by Heikki Seppa

Shilshole by Alfredo Arreguin

This was in a hallway upstairs. I did not see a card with the artist's name.

Also in a hallway without a card. This appealed to the quilter in me.

Several pieces had a humorous aspect, sometimes with an edge, with additional meaning communicated through the work's title.

Pleaser by Sue Roberts

 

Safe Risk by Sue Roberts

Armchair Adventure by Sue Roberts

Beginner by Karen Buhler

New to the Neighborhood by Karen Buhler

Practice by Karen Buhler

The Power of Self Esteem by Eileen Sorg

Some were just fun.

Out on a Limb by Debbie Fecher-Gramstad

SeaQuester by Linda Jarvis

Signum by David Eisenhour

Spring by David Eisenhour

The gallery on the second flour was devoted to more sculptures by David Eisenhour. These seemed to derive their inspiration from organic forms found in the sea.

Old Growth

Earth Stinger

Progression II

Endless Forms

Orchid

Ibex

Hinge

Shell Game