Ice sculptures

They were doing two ice sculpture contests at the local zoo last weekend.

Art met ice in our local zoo last weekend, and I went to admire the efforts of the 14 teams. We had about -10 C, which is nice, because that means that the sculptures won't melt - yet.

Years ago, I went to see the sculptures of a similar event a few weeks after the fact, and they were all almost gone: it had been above freezing for a few days, and the sun had helped melt things even faster. Wise from that experience, I went early enough this time.

"Art Meets Ice" is actually two separate contests, the 4-hour "Korkeasaari contest" on Saturday, and the 2-day "Helsinki contest" on Saturday and Sunday. The sculptures of the Helsinki contest were due to be finished at 1600 ... I was there on Sunday at 1300, and didn't want to wait for the three hours it'd have taken, as a) my car was acting up, and b) the batteries in my camera were going dead from the cold. Live and learn - next time I'll take all of my batteries.

So I only took pics of the Saturday contest sculptures.

Pic: Art meets Ice 2007: A sturgeon. It was the favorite of the public, and incidentally the one I liked best: a sturgeon by a Russian team.

Have a look at the rest of the pics here.