A gigantic, pink squiggle stands out against the sky at Pilane. The surrounding landscape forms a painterly backdrop for this abstract, doodled sign. Like a modern interpretation of a 17th-century ornament, Baroque Schnörkel marks the ancient burial field that has been here since the Iron Age.

This sculpture by Jay Gard has the magnificence and drama of the opulent Baroque style that was predominant in Europe from the late 1500s until the early 1700s. Like the Baroque artists, who designed the tombs of princes, Gard has created a landmark for a place where our unknown ancestors lie buried.

The work combines tradition with visual innovation. Its coiling shape is a surprise, with giant dimensions and a bubble-gum pink colour that references both the rose hues of Baroque painting and popular culture. The industrial material is presented in a way that enhances its beauty.

Jay Gard, born in 1984 in Halle, Germany, studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, with a degree in space technology from 2011. In his practice, he often quotes and paraphrases different artistic styles and cultural contexts. Some of his references are from old masters, others allude to Constructivism, Bauhaus or De Stijl. Gard exhibits regularly, and his art is represented at the Bauhaus Museum and Ny Carlsbergfondet.

Göran Hägg creates props and scenery for fabulous narratives. Viewers can fill in the blanks with their own imagination and experiences. Since the 1980s, Hägg has explored a singular figurative imagery featuring different kinds of machinery. Building on the legacy of Per Olov Ultvedt and Jean Tinguely, Hägg often focuses on mechanical constructions and installation art. In a blend of engineering and artistic vision, his works form a unique universe. His whimsical, often mobile, sculptures resemble real-life objects. Strange replicas of aeroplanes, submarines and automobiles seem to come from a parallel universe that is similar but not identical to our own. Humour and seriousness are intertwined in fragmentary scenarios with dystopian undercurrents.

At Pilane, we now have a hangar with three aeroplanes, and a landing strip outside. Each vessel is accompanied by a fully-equipped pilot, in a suit that hides all individual traits and transforms the figures into anonymous heroes or antiheroes. The suggestive total installation, which can be both amusing and unsettling depending on the viewer’s perspective, was built from scratch. Detailed, fascinating and quirky, it feels like stepping into a time machine at your peril.

BUTTERFLY

A gigantic, bright-yellow butterfly has settled among the rocks at Pilane. This sculpture Butterfly by Göran Hägg is a larger-than-life version of a monarch. Like a surviving species from the past, the butterfly stands more than two metres tall and appears both mighty and fragile. The monarch is known for its long migrations and its phenomenal ability to find its way. In autumn, the young butterflies gather in huge flocks and fly south to the place their mothers came from in the spring, mainly California and Mexico. The most remarkable thing is that they can find that particular spot without ever having been there. Despite many ongoing studies, the monarch’s navigational capacity is still an enigma to scientists and a constant source of inspiration for writers of fiction and artists. On account of its metamorphoses, the butterfly has become a symbol of new beginnings on several levels. It is associated with rebirth, change and voyages of learning. At Pilane, Hägg’s Butterfly is a companion piece to the aeroplanes in the hangar. Nature’s own expert navigators, alongside the pilots and their flying machines.

An abandoned sleeping bag, or a large cocoon for a gigantic caterpillar? Protection or threat? Enticing yet unnerving, Moa Israelsson’s works often convey a vague sense of danger, in the wake of a fatal incident. With objects and installations, she portrays uninhabited landscapes, where traces of former life are all that remain. This could be a postapocalyptic future, after the fall of civilisation. There is an eerie sensation that this is Earth’s twilight.

Israelsson usually works with materials that look organic. As if the objects were straight from nature, or remnants that nature has invaded. The artificial mimics the natural in her art, however. Her works are skilfully made of iron, acrylic composites, silk, latex and leather. The craftsmanship is as meticulous as the artistic intention is precise.

Out in the beautiful Pilane landscape, the hardy bronze sculpture offers a morsel of hope. Perhaps it is a reminder that life forms do not disappear completely but constantly transform. Its beauty is at once both memorable and melancholy.

Moa Israelsson, born in 1982, studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She alternates between various artistic genres, creating sculptures, installations and films. She has had several widely-acknowledged solo exhibitions, including at Vandalorum in Värnamo, Sörmlands Museum in Nyköping, and Lars Bohman Gallery in Stockholm. She is represented in private and public collections, such as Eskilstuna Konstmuseum and the Public Art Agency Sweden.

Pool by Tony Cragg interacts with nature in a marvellous way. Its billowing volume harmonises with the surrounding cliff walls. Organic natural contours and geometric theory invented by man merge seamlessly in Cragg’s suggestive art. Forever in search of new aesthetic potential, he expresses his artistic urge through sculptural experiments with bronze, wood, plastic, fibreglass, and so on. It’s all about form and the essence and surface treatment of these materials.

Several of Cragg’s sculptural works seem to coil around their own axis. The spiral movement conveys a sense of progression and forward momentum. The parts connect like a cluster of different, ongoing events. Chains and curves alter with the viewer’s movements towards or away from the work. And still, the entities fuse into one monochrome totality.

Cragg’s formal idiom is abstract. Among the non-figurative elements, however, our eyes find familiar shapes. Parts resembling conches and ears reveal themselves as the sculptures turn inwards to their own core. The smooth yet dynamic volumes and complex structures reveal unexpected resemblances with the human body. When these monumental works tower before us, we gradually discover figures that seem to have been hiding within. As if someone wants to break free from inside, the material is stretched into enigmatic silhouettes, large eyes, lips, noses and slender necks. … Is someone appearing and disappearing under the sculpture’s bronze skin? Something living? Human? Artificial? There is no obvious answer to that question. And this is one of many qualities of his exceptional design, which challenges the eye and sparks the intellect. The longer we look, the more we see.

Tony Cragg, born in 1949 in Liverpool, is among Britain’s greatest sculptors. He studied at the Gloucester College of Art and Design in Cheltenham in 1968–1969, the Wimbledon School of Art in 1969–1972, and at the Royal College of Art in 1972–1977. He has lived and worked in Wuppertal in Germany since 1979. Summertime, he works in his studio on Tjörn in Bohuslän. Cragg was awarded the Turner Prize in 1988. He became a Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1994. Cragg has exhibited all over the world, and his works are installed in numerous public places.

Anna, a monumental work by Jaume Plensa, is one of the world’s largest sculptures. Permanently installed on the highest rock at Pilane, it has also become a landmark on the Swedish west coast. This monochrome white figure was created specifically for Pilane and is from a series depicting young women. Each sculpture portrays a real person and is named after her. The creative process incorporates modern technology. The female heads with slightly elongated proportions are intentionally idealised. Their exquisite, contemplative faces with eyes closed convey a sense of concentration, thoughtfulness, exalted serenity and introversion. The dreamy mood sends a message of hope and infinite possibilities. Anna seems to capture and immortalise those early elusive moments that slip away when worries and experiences begin to impact on our lives.

Jaume Plensa, born in 1955 in Barcelona, finds inspiration in poetry and music, and in the people he meets. He has worked in traditional materials such as glass, steel and bronze, but also in more unusual media, including water and light. Plensa often plays with shadows, transparency and shifts in scale. He has exhibited at galleries and museums all over the world and received numerous accolades and prizes for his art. Plensa is represented at the Art Museum in Miami, Millennium Park in Chicago, Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, BBC Broadcasting Tower in London, Borås Fashion Center, Kulturhuset Väven in Umeå and many other collections.