Kvarteret Svärdet, Ringvägen, Stockholm, 1988–89

"The sphere next to the erected form is a recurring motif in Sivert's public art. The vertical form – the tower, pillar, or obelisk – finds a counterbalance in the perfect sphere placed at its foot. The motif also has historical parallels in Swedish sculpture and architecture. An example from the time of Gustav III is the obelisk commemorating the king at Slottsbacken in Stockholm, where the erected form interacts in various ways with the site's classicist idiom.

In Kvarteret Svärdet, this combination reappears in a contemporary rendition. The residential quarter was built between 1980 and 1988 according to drawings by architect Bengt Lindroos (1918–2010). The quarter is bounded by Maria Bangata to the north, Rosenlundsgatan to the east, Sköldgatan to the south, and Ringvägen to the west. In shape, it resembles a sword tip pointing southwest. To the northeast, three sides are enclosed by the traffic-separated Ånghästparken.

Great care was devoted to the courtyard environments. The plantings follow the terrain's elevation differences and create a sequence of varying outdoor spaces along the so-called green street. In this environment, Sivert's sculpture functions as a clear marker. The bronze spheres at the base of the erected form reinforce the work's geometric and architectural character and simultaneously help to anchor the sculpture in the courtyard space.

Together with Bengt Lindroos' architecture, not least the climbing balconies facing the inner courtyard, the sculpture forms an expression that clearly reflects the 1980s and 90s' interest in historicizing forms and borrowed aesthetic references. Lindroos' architecture and Sivert's sculpture meet in an idiom where the historical is not reproduced literally, but reinterpreted and given a new function in the modern residential environment."
/JÖ