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1986
A competition for the city's 200th birthday produced the sculpture
In 1986 the west part of the city funded a competition for a new sculpture for the 200th anniversary of Reykjavík. Jón Gunnar Árnason's Sun Voyager won, and the full-sized work was unveiled on 18 August 1990, the city's birthday.
The build
It is made of stainless steel and stands on a circle of granite slabs
The aluminium model that won was presented to the city for enlargement. The full-size work was built from Árnason's hand-drawn full-scale plan, with his assistant, the artist Kristin E. Hrafnsson, overseeing it.
The sun ship
Árnason first carved a sun ship into a granite rock in Finland
In May 1985 he took part in the Saari-Vala Environmental Art Action in Bockholm, Finland. There he carved a picture of a sun ship into a granite rock by the sea. He said the sun ship symbolizes the promise of new, undiscovered territory.
“The sun ship symbolizes the promise of new, undiscovered territory.”
Jón Gunnar Árnason, in 1987
North
The ship faces north, not west toward the setting sun
Some people complained that the ship does not face west, as the concept intended. Árnason first thought of Landakot hill. The final site was a small headland on Sæbraut, which he jokingly called Jónsnes, and he accepted that the ship would face north.
Day 1, midday
It comes after Hallgrimskirkja. Then Reykjavik Harbour.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article The Sun Voyager, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.