Valter Johansson

Fall is a transitory period from a time of light to a time of darkness. So what are autumn lights? What light comes with the darkness of fall? I think of the lights from the city.

The light source I based my work on is that from the car’s headlights. The artwork is placed next to Västra Esplanaden, one of Umeå’s busiest roads. The cars illustrate our movement through a modern society. Anonymous, distracted and secluded. 
The reflective material of the road signs on the top of the sculpture will light up only for a moment by the passing cars and then disappear back into the darkness. What the cars do not see is the beast at the foot of the sculpture only in view from the other side. The concrete foundation is a grotesque, its sculptural shape inspired from the statues of Notre Dame. The sculpture shares the space with a trash container and the foodora cars in an alley. A place that seems like a leftover. An urban limbo. 

The title has two meanings. The first is as an instruction. The signs are meant to be seen from the road by car. The other is a hopeful promise to a passing traveler that we shall see each other again further along our journey as we get closer to, find ourselves in, or have passed through that which the signs warn us about. 
Because there is another darkness other than that of autumn. A more threatening, surrounding darkness and in a lot of cases it was said that there were warning signs. My sculpture tells us of looming disaster and of such warnings that we leave to each other but that can only be seen in the periphery as we are always moving, distracted, occupied with upholding our everyday life. 

A collage of misshapen road signs with reflective surfaces attached to a galvanized steel pipe mounted on a sculpted concrete foundation. 
Size: (base) 60 x 80 x (höjd) 320 cm
Technique: sculpture, concrete casting, metal working
Material: reused street signs, metal, concrete, wood

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Thanks to Kuusakoski for the road signs.