Milestones

For the Reykjavík Arts Festival of 1990, a work of art by US sculp­tor Richard Serra was crea­ted on West island. The work comprises nine pairs of pill­ars of col­umnar basalt, which “frame” certain land­marks and dest­inati­ons. Serra, one of the most influ­ential sculp­tors of the post-war era, made a gift of Áfangar to the Icelandic people

Each pair of pill­ars is placed so that one stands nine metres above sea level and the other ten metres. The pillar which stands lower is four metres high, and the other three metres tall, so the tops of all the pill­ars are level. The dist­ance between each pair of pill­ars is defined by the vary­ing gra­dient of the ground where they stand.