Moss children take root at Swedish Institute

Strange children and animals are taking over the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis for the next three months. They're the creations of Finnish artist Kim Simonsson.

"We have all been children, so we can all relate to that," said Simonsson, who's been making life-sized ceramic sculptures of children and animals for 15 years.

While his sculptures are lovely, they're also creepy. He's inspired by Scandinavian fairy tales, Japanese anime, books such as "Peter Pan" and "Lord of the Flies," and films like "The Shining" and "Alien." What at first appears to be an innocent image — a young girl feeding a rabbit — becomes slightly more sinister when you realize the rabbit has two heads.

"I've always done work that is a bit uneasy," Simonsson explained. "I try to make work that is somehow, for some people maybe, beautiful, but then also a little bit strange — not so explainable."

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