Comments on: Strange Statues From Around the World

Strange Statues From Around the World

IndigoJones — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 11:33:35 -0800

By: nylon

nylon — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 11:53:33 -0800

Some of these are really excellent, but some info on where they are would have been nice - the captions kind of peter out partway down. I love the upside down one in Melbourne. That's inspired. Here's a favourite of mine that they overlooked: the Headington Shark.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 11:54:18 -0800

I'm getting: Server not found

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:02:34 -0800

This is clearly inspired by this.

By: BillyElmore

BillyElmore — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:14:56 -0800

Those were great, especially the one about when-babies-attack. Also the couple taken in three shots, one in snow, was fun. I especially felt that was a beaver shot was worthy of bronze.

By: kimdog

kimdog — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:15:19 -0800

Lots of of Boteros on that list. I didn't see any of NYC's more interesting sculpture on this blog.

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:22:39 -0800

The first statue is part of the work shown in Vigeland Park (a.k.a. Frogner Park) in Oslo. The park contains most of the life's work of Gustav Vigeland (Wikipedia link). The recurring theme is the relation between men and women from childhood to old age, and the tragic and bliss during the course of marriage and family life. IMO his work should be viewed in context with the surrounding statues, as it only then generates it's sometimes moving and sometimes haunting atmosphere. If you happen to visit Oslo anytime, the park is a must.

By: NinjaTadpole

NinjaTadpole — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:27:46 -0800

Some of these are fantastic. As many of the reactions say, it's a shame the site owner didn't have a greater idea of locations and artists, but still, excellent demonstration of figurative differences in art. nylon - it's mentioned in the comments. Don't worry that the world ignores the Headington Shark.

By: beerbajay

beerbajay — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:28:07 -0800

Dennis Oppenheim:

By: wah

wah — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:33:22 -0800

great stuff...where is the NYC stuff (besides the u.n. gun). I wonder if the guy is still adding thigns.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:49:51 -0800

fantastic pics in this post. thanks.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:55:45 -0800

The split pregnant woman (called "The Virgin Mother") by Damien Hurst (b.1965) is very interesting. It asks the viewer to both look at something, and through something, at the same time. At once to both esthetically enjoy a naked woman, and to analyze and de-construct it. One emotional (style) the other analytic (substance). It is a mirror of modern society which is (overly) pregnant with knowledge/ information, where style reigns over substance (mother over child). This is a notable reversal of the old order when substance was more important than the packaging it came in, today style, packaging, is everything. Damien Hurst has captured the essence of an age overloaded with "stuff".

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 13:09:06 -0800

Don't have a picture, but glimpsed from a train in an Austrian park: a large empty pedestal with the female sculpture resting in the grass nearby.

By: wsg

wsg — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:04:49 -0800

How could they leave out the famous boll weevil statue of Enterprise, Alabama?

By: thanatogenous

thanatogenous — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:16:23 -0800

Is in Prague. Thought it was odd enough to snap a picture myself.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:22:15 -0800

I'm pretty sure that this is actually somebody's mailbox. That's not to say it isn't a statue, if a thing can be said to be both.

By: wsg

wsg — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:36:27 -0800

Don't have a picture, but glimpsed from a train in an Austrian park: a large empty pedestal with the female sculpture resting in the grass nearby. posted by StickyCarpet at 3:09 PM CST on July 1 I'd like to see that.

By: hexatron

hexatron — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:41:16 -0800

There are two Boteros in the Time Warner center in New York. You can see them on this page advertising The Shops at Columbus Circle The Botero is the fourth picture down. But what are those two little kids doing?

By: zoinks

zoinks — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:54:52 -0800

I don't know if this counts as "strange" (the site that is the subject of the FPP here won't load for me), but it is really cool, plus comes with a neat ritual of lucky toe-rubbing.

By: zoinks

zoinks — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 15:09:48 -0800

This one has a scary story. But I still can't tell if it's strange enough or not. Don't mean to be slightly derailing(?), sorry if so.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 15:29:41 -0800

It's nice to be reminded that the world is full of such wacky, random, beautiful things. Thank you.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 15:34:16 -0800

I love this comment from the linked page (emphasis mine): ginger June 28th, 2006 14:10 25 I'm sorry but I miss classical art and the classical world. I was raised on the arts and took a nonjudgmental stance until it drove me literally crazy. Again, I'm sorry, but I really dislike most of these statues. Let people be naked once they've solved the world's problems and learned what love is. Please don't make me stare at metallic genitalia in public places — it makes me not want to have sex, ever, because I'm ashamed of how lost and greedy humanity has become. I do not want to bring a child into this world and have him be forced to consider this art somehow good. I was hoping to look at these photos and laugh, but I didn't because it reminded me of how ugly contemporary people tend to be. I just felt nauseous at how low people are willing to go in order to feel "higher class" (they're too stupid to think of the word "sophisticated" generally), and how entitled they feel to impose their bad aesthetics on everyone. I don't want to pay any taxes for this crap, and I'm someone who once wrote graduate paper on Robert Mappelthorpe and the NEA. Boy, was that a bunch of propoganda I was fed. If you guys like it then good for you, but as for me: NO THANKS, not anymore.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 15:47:08 -0800

George_Spiggott, thanks for explaining that. I was wondering what was going on with that one.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 16:10:52 -0800

This list is not complete without the ugliest statue in the world.

By: Pacheco

Pacheco — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 16:52:10 -0800

sour cream: that picture seriously gave me goose bumps...It must be quite an experience to see that in person. It looks huge.

By: quin

quin — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:29:50 -0800

I get server not found as well. Did the link mention the Forevertron? Doc Evermore is one of my favorite sculptors working today.

By: Faze

Faze — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:33:23 -0800

ColdChef: Thanks for sharing that quote. I missed it. I love and bless whoever made the quote, because I had almost the same thoughts as I looked at that parade of hard, ugly egotism, only I was thinking maybe there was something wrong with me. I am no fan of the heroic in statuary, but the anti-heroic just exchanges one set of vainglorious assholes with another (sometimes literally).

By: renraw

renraw — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:46:35 -0800

The Hurst statue stbalbach linked to reminds me of the "Visible Man" and "Visible Woman" models I had as a kid. Really, really cool little toys. Can't load the FPP's actual linked page though.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:47:48 -0800

damn, site's borked. We need a duggmirror over here. Anyway, I thought the strangest statue on the page was the Charles La Trobe statue in Melbourne. Alot of these statue are trying to hard to be weird but that La Trobe statue is brilliantly odd.

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 19:33:51 -0800

Pacheco : "It must be quite an experience to see that in person. It looks huge." It's 230 feet tall, and the face on the side is 33 feet wide.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 19:34:06 -0800

There's also Niki de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden in Tuscany.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 19:35:40 -0800

p.s. I cannot access the original link. By any chance can somebody else post another link to see these strange statues of IndigoJones's post?

By: jonson

jonson — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:04:55 -0800

It's funny how many people can't get to the original link. The site's not down by any means, there must be some kind of traffic routing tomfoolery taking place with .nu domains. I posted this link on my blog yesterday afternoon & got an email from a friend telling me the link was down this morning. No idea what's causing it, but it is interesting how many people are affected.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 20:51:05 -0800

Thank you for informing me of this jonson. I just now found a way around this whatever it is, by going to Coral: http://www.coralcdn.org/ and entering the URL: www.haha.nu/funny/strange-statues-around-the-world/ Those are very strange statues! Amazing. I've always enjoyed the strange bronze ravens perched on the bars at the Canal Street Station, NYC.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 21:14:53 -0800

this link should work

By: jonson

jonson — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:57:43 -0800

nickyskye & p&c, thanks, I'll use that workaround quite often, as my stupid IT dept @ work has block seemingly all .au & .jp domain traffic, which frequently gets in the way of my valuable australian & japanese fetish site browsing.

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:58:27 -0800

This statue not Voltron like the page asserts, but rather Mazinger Z (aka Tranzor Z). This message has been brought to you by the Council for Mazinger Z Awareness.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 23:19:12 -0800

I got that link from the cacheout extension I just installed today. I figured it would come in handy.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 09:19:38 -0800

Minuet in MG is a three-story filing cabinet holding a recycled 1974 MG Midget. (Not the best picture, but the best one I could find)

By: shelleycat

shelleycat — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:02:51 -0800

The link wouldn't work for me for a while and I'm not at work, so it's not a system thing (no fancy system going on here). But once I copied the url, pasted it straight into the address bar anbd hit enter it worked fine. And was worth the messing around :D

By: ubersturm

ubersturm — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 00:33:54 -0800

Wow, sour cream, that's even worse than The Politician - A Toy, which I've despised since I first saw it. I was sort of surprised not to see the FREE stamp or the huge neon Atomic Playground sign on the list, although I suppose Cleveland is not really a hot tourist attaction.