It looks like a smoking chimney leading to an underground laboratory, but it is actually a sculpture.

Ingvar Cronhammar’s works of art often look like structures or industrial machines – and his sculptures are often very large.

’Eye of the Shadow’ is situated in the tension between a work of art and architecture – you have probably seen it, but never regarded it as art. In this way, his works mime industry, and are often overlooked for being exactly that.

’Eye of the Shadow’ was supposed to wake up at night and become active. Steam was to emanate from its square openings at the top, together with a red light, so as to make it seem as if the sculpture smouldered in the darkness. The principal thus ended up comparing the work of art with a fire breathing dragon – a protector of the high school.

Sadly, time has forced ’Eye of the Shadow’ to change. Because of chalk deposits on the nozzles, the artist had to let go of the idea. Instead, red stripes of lightning, which are clearly seen in the dark, were installed along the sides of the pillar. The light source at the top was made stronger so that it almost looked like a flame in the chamber.

The artist, Ingvar Cronhammar, does not regard the new work of art as a compromise, but rather a strengthening of the original sculpture. It now looks as if the red light is born at the bottom of the sculpture, and then travels towards the windows at the top – a beacon of light.

The work of art was set up in 1992.

Copyright Struer Museum