Window Displays Offer Insight to Hopes and Aspirations of Stavanger Residents

Many Norwegians take for granted the ubiquitous window displays, or mini-galleries, that grace the streets of Stavanger. I have been greeted with shrugs of shoulders upon my inquiries to locals about the nature and meaning of the artwork, which has only left me more curious. Transcending the social and economic strata, this proliferation of individualized window art has also been noted and swiftly adopted by many immigrants, so it is no longer a uniquely native Norwegian phenomenon. Indeed, it is a common thread that binds everyone who lives in or passes through Stavanger, and therefore is a major source of pride in the area.

But what does it all mean? There are far too many displays for it to be considered purely an action by quirky individuals crying out for attention or validity in a socially conservative society. I have come to understand it as a window into the thoughts and dreams of the local residents.

The displays have been interpreted as a way to distinguish one house from another, since most are strikingly similar in appearance and texture, the colors ranging from white to gray to pale yellow and "baby poop" yellowish brown, but I think that no matter how disoriented one becomes under the influence of intoxicants, one can always find his own home.

Frequently plastic flowers are featured as a centre-piece to the exhibits. The better ones are faded by the sun, to give the appearance of comfort, like a familiar old pair of blue jeans. But the flowers are not a necessity - many windows feature flowerless plastic plants, again, the more faded the better. Some have interpreted the plastic plants and flowers as a softness in the heart of the Norwegians, like the longing for a more moderate climate that could foster such a sophisticated, beautiful type of organism. I have found, however, that an indoor environment almost anywhere is conducive to growing flowering and non-flowering plants, such as orchids, ferns, and geraniums, with only a minimal care needed.

Flowers, in general, represent the conception of an eternal Spring - a time of freshness, growth, curiosity, newness, imagination, enchantment, love, wonder, renaissance, and fruition. Plants represent a simplicity of life and basic needs, a balance of give and take. The plant collects light, water, and nutrients from the Earth, and in exchange changes carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen. It represents co-existence of different life forms. It says that we need each other, and on a more profound level, we are all inter-related, be we Scandinavian, African, Latin, Asian or Continental. Our different skills and cultures help each other to thrive. Add the plastic nature into the picture, and the result is a well-intentioned, manufactured synthetic society. In this society, appearance matters more than substance. Like hospitality to a stranger, at first it seems genuine, but over time the enthusiasm fades, as do the plastic flowers. A presentation of how we see the unlimited possibilities of our bountiful world when we are young eventually turns into a presention of the faded hopes and aspirations of a manufactured world as we age and our egalitarian ideals fade, and we turn our attention and imagination toward making and hoarding money. In seeming compensation, many of the older displays feature pottery, sculptures and idols, to represent the exchange of beautiful ideals for garish material wealth, the more crass the better the representation. Others feature old-timey artifacts to demonstrate the longing for simpler more innocent times. In fact, these days, many of the newer exhibits dispense entirely with the illusion of moral beauty and feature only distasteful knick-knacks, sometimes interlaced with pseudo-religious or sexual undertones. Some of the disillusioned younger folk even dispense entirely with all of the above and display only spent beer bottles to show their frustration with the situation. No fooling around here.

To underscore the popularity of these displays, Stavanger boasts numerous retail establishments that service this demand, and a Saturday market has even sprung up by popular demand, where residents can purchase or trade all levels of such demonstrative objects, as pictured below.

In the end, the window art exhibits are an expression of visual protest to the inescapable closed-minded manufactured society that has been allowed to dominate the lives of the inhabitants.