In order to bring this blog alive we’re going to start posting a Friday foodhenge here as we do on all of our social media accounts. We’ll start with this vegan sausagehenge which is exactly as absurd as we need it to be as we launch this new feature! Posted by @student_veganlife on Instagram.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends, and don’t forget to henge! š
Monthly Archives for January 2022
Kari Kola’s Snowhenge: Until it Melts!
A full-sized Stonehenge sculpted from snowāone of those things we didn’t know we needed until we saw it! [See a short but wonderful video of the sculpture here] Look at the shapes of the trilithons and the arrangement of the “stones” of this Snowhenge in Finland. Time and thought have been taken to make it seem like the real one. I would love to experience what it’s like to walk among them!
This remarkable installation arose from the brilliant mind of Finnish light artist Kari Kola. On his Facebook page he writes:
“I wanted to create something iconic to these harsh times and i was thinking the strongest places i’ve been… then everything was clear! Let’s build Stonehenge on 1:1 scale from snow! Project is called Snowhenge! It’s been a privilege to work with ice-sculpting masters Mr. Anssi Kuosa and Mr. Lkhagvadorj āGeorgeā Dorjsuren with this project. Also this wouldn’t be possible without creative construction consultant Mr. Brendan Savage from Ireland to realize the exact scale and positions. Also it’s a privilege to be supported from Stonehenge, thank you Jessica Trethovan and Jennifer Davies! This is located in my gardens at my hometown Joensuu before it melts.”
An article about the snowhenge in Finnish STT info says “The multiple Finnish master of ice sculpture Anssi Kuosa has been responsible for the sculpture together with the world champion of Mongolian ice sculpture Lkhagvadorj āGeorgeā Dorjsure. Kola asked Brendan Savage, an Irish creative construction technology consultant with more than 30 years of experience in large structures and scale, to join the project.“
The article goes on to say, “Stonehenge has never before been built on a 1: 1 scale from snow. The stone circle is 32m in diameter and the largest stones are about 6m high. Construction of the project started on 27.12. and the project has been under construction by about 10 people. The complex is expected to be on view until mid-March in the Botanical Garden in Joensuu, owned by Kola.”
That is, until it melts. Is it just us or does anyone else hope there is a lengthy timelapse of it melting when this is all over? Watching Stonehenge Melt seems like a good title for a video, or for something at least.
Part of Kola’s motivation for making the Stonehenge is to encourage the creative arts. On his Facebook post about the Stonehenge replica he also writes: “I think it’s very important to remember history and importance of culture and arts. In these crazy times with the pandemic its been very sad to see many governments to have very low support for the arts and artist. I hope that the project will inspire other artists to keep creating beautiful projects all over the planet.“
What a wonderful project,! Itās the kind of thing that shows something we’ve reflected on from time to time. Doing Clonehenge allows us to see the best and most creative sides of people at a time when it’s easy to forget that humanity has a good side. Think of all the thought, planning, work, and certainly money that has gone into making this beautiful sculpture that has no practical use. It was built knowing that before long it will melt away. Instead of men at work, although they have certainly worked, it is in a sense men at play. For us this makes the list, with Jeremy Deller’s inflatable Stonehenge, of our favourite Stonehenge replicas of all time. Bravo to its creators and to the spirit of creativity and joy that it embodies!
People in this world with us are still brilliant, doing brilliant things! We can’t wait to see what you do. So until next time, friends, happy henging!
Late-breaking news: since posting this we found this wonderful 360Ā° experience of Kola’s Snowhenge, which allows the user to view it as if from inside, even providing a choice of day or nighttime! https://360panorama.fi/360BotaniaTalvipuutarha/
How to Build Stonehenge! And Possibly Restore a Blog?
Well, here’s the story. For the last few years we have neglected this original Clonehenge blog, focusing instead on our presence on Twitter, Facebook, and eventually Instagram. Recently we’ve even dreamed of getting a cute animĆ© 2-D avatar and becoming a Clonehenge V-tuber! Why not? We have to move with the times. š Meanwhile we’ve let this WordPress blog fall into ruins, littered with broken links and humour that we (unlike everyone else) once thought funny but that is now super cringe. This past year we were even considering deleting the blog once we completed the mythical possibly never-to-be-completed Clonehenge World Map.
BUT things happen, plans change, often precipitated by unforeseen events. In this case the unforeseen event is called Mike Pitts*, or more properly a book written by him, set to be released in a few weeks, the book you see above entitled How to Build Stonehenge. Written by Pitts, well known archaeologist, journalist and Stonehenge scholar and enthusiast (he’s shown up on this blog in the past, I believe, bouncing on Jeremy Deller’s inflatable Stonehenge and saying he recognised every stone. Hmm, must check we didn’t say anything in that post we might wish we hadn’t!), the book talks about how Stonehenge was built including the accumulated scholarship of the past plus all of the latest research, with lots of interesting tidbits thrown in to create a uniquely comprehensive and fascinating look at how it came together along with other points of interest about the iconic monument. We think. Haven’t actually read it, since it isn’t out yet, but we will see soon enough.
Normally the announcement of such a book would simply be delightful, if potentially expensive, news. But on the 16th of December of last year the author tweeted out a few photos of his author’s copy including part of a page of the preface and Lo, there in the that image was the name Clonehenge! Our thanks to Tim Daw of the informative Stonehenge website www.sarsen.org for drawing our attention to it. The photo not only mentions the name Clonehenge but also the name of the one behind the curtain, who honestly would never even have guessed that the esteemed Mr. Pitts knew their name.
Notice however that this mention doesn’t name our Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. No, just this old WordPress blog which frankly we had stuck against the back wall of the garage behind some boxes, old sleds from when the children still lived here, and that former favourite no-longer-working lawnmower that’s just too good to throw away. I think some squirrels actually nested in this blog at some point and when we got it back out last month to have a look we had to dump nut shells, sticks, and grasses out of some of the posts from roughly 2013 to 2016. Yet when the book comes out and people become curious and look us up, this old abandoned wreck is what they’ll see.
So after lengthy panic (our area of expertise!) and a certain amount of contemplation, what we recommend for everyone who sees this is of course to buy Mike Pitts’ book How to Build Stonehenge, to be released 17 February in the U.K. and mid-March in the States, if you haven’t pre-ordered already, and not to look at any posts on this blog that are more than a year or two old. There aren’t any fleas but we can’t guarantee you won’t feel a little itchy after reading some of those old posts.
For our part we will start by writing brief new posts about Stonehenge replicas worldwide not yet added to our Large Permanent Replica listāthere are well over 100 now and we need to catch upāand then eventually we’ll go back and improve old posts. There are well over 400 posts on this blog though, so it won’t happen overnight. Please bear with us. There’s only one of us and we have another blog on another subject with many more followers that also requires tending. If you run across any dust or nutshells in the meantime just toss them aside. Squirrels can be such a nuisance.
We thank you for being here, gentle readers, and until the next time, happy henging!
*Mike Pitts’ archaeology journalism blog can be found at Digging Deeper.
CLONEHENGE 