Maddeningly bizarre, "cast in stone" - so people will have to live with it!
We have to say right away: we love these wicked additions to urban landscape - the weirder the better, less boring gray expanses and zombie-spawning parking lots! But we have to ask ourselves, what sort of oxygen these artists were inhaling, and what sort of psychedelic lunch they were eating before going on with something like this (see more than 85 examples below, some maybe slightly nsfw!).
As in some other DRB posts, we number each sculpture, and let you vote in the comments which one is the most unforgettable, disturbing and bizarre! As for me, I am going to erect a metal scarecrow on the roof of my building to scare off police helicopters, or build a nutty shrine for squirrels in my backyard, all the while fighting off local zombing...er, "zoning" by-law enforcers.
Should we start with the SuperLambBanana? Sure! -
1. Liverpool, England - via 2. People, shot full of holes, appropriately across L.A. Police Department, other one - via
3. A little overweight, Erevan, Armenia 4. San Jose, Costa Rica - via
5. "Unfinished City of Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Project # 8" - via Erik 6. The Lady Fish, San Francisco - via Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle
7 and 8. More wonderful urban sharks in San Jose, California - via
9. Disabled statue on Trafalgar Square in London, more info - via 10. Finger sculpture, similar to "Le Pouce" one, in France - via
11. City of Wilmington's tribute to the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot - via Erik 12. "The Angel of the North" in Gateshead, England - via
13. Happy in Chattanooga, Tennessee - via Sean Phipps 14. Skull involved in non-traditional activity, Prague - via Patton
15. Nameless example somewhere in Russia 16. Don't come close - via
17. Armenia, Erevan - via 18. Nazgul is spotted in Prague, the same one sits in Salzburg, Austria - via
19. Instead of surveillance camera... 20. David Cerny's classic "Pissing Men", Prague - via
21. Monument to Franz Kafka, Prague - via 22. Heavenly angel, resting... Prague again - via
23. Marionette Theater in Prague - via 24. Potsdam, Germany - via
25. Chattanooga, Tennessey - via Sean Phipps 26. Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia, Russia - via
27. A guy and a horse melting into a blob - but rather, this is Baron Münchhausen, pulling himself up; 28. Watering problem solved, Wateringen, Holland - via
29. Beheaded "things", and pots... in Moscow - via
Speaking about monuments simply crying for context... Look at the founding fathers of Communism, looking down on Nazi soldier entering a building... Anyone has details? -
This is only a first part of projected (truly monumental) series, so send us tips and images of whatever sculptural weirdness you spotted in public places!
#64 is a Jens Galschiøt sculpture "Survival of the Fattest", which resides in Ringkøbing. But attends UN meetings, a powerful statement about the rich western world vs the poor third world.
In 2005 they designed a monument for Prince Bernhard , in memory of the deceased honorary citizen of Wageningen in WWII. The statue, called Freedom's fire, was in the shape of a penis, and caused a lot of commotion.
#58 is a sculpture by Swiss artist called H.R. Giger and is called Birth Machine Baby. I'm not sure where it is. On the other hand, good selection and again a great post! Keep it up!
#54 is located in Stockholm, Sweden, right outside Berzelii Park. It's really awesome - the first time I saw it, from behind, I thought it was a real person.
The Sharks are all from San Jose, California not Los Angeles... they were part of a fundraiser and represent local support for the NHL San Jose Sharks!
I've seen a similar statue to 18 in Salzburg, here's a link to a picture i scrounged up from the internets: http://damiandaily.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/salzburg-statue.jpg
I must admit, every time I come home to England through Scotland, (I work in Kilbride but live in Leeds) I see the Angel of the North, and it just makes me feel like I'm home again. It's a sight for sore eyes, and no matter how long I'm away, I love coming back, just to behold that sight.
nice little ice-cream in cologne germany: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg/399px-Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg
I'm not sure why you have the "maddeningly bizarre" part in the title. Why would this make you angry? That's a weird choice of word. But I enjoy the big grouping of public art. Some of it is awesome. Some of it is bordering on dysfunctional (what's with all the urination?)
Oh, and I agree - lose the photoshopped stuff. There's only two of them, and the serve no purpose to include in there.
oh melbourne onesss ^^ the purse is coollll its on the shopping strip in melbourne called bourke st when i was really young, i used to love those skinny dudes, people used to put gummy rings on their fingers and sometimes cigarettes in their mouths, but now when someone does it, homeless people steal them !! :(
Hi Avi, No.12, the Angel Of The North, in Gateshead UK, is by Anthony Gormley. Check out his site here: http://www.antonygormley.com/home.html My favourites by him are, 'Another Place' - men standing on the beach at Crosby,Liverpool, and 'Sound II', which stands in the often flooded crypt of Winchester Cathedral.
The crane in Wateringen, Holland was first build in front of the `zeeman` (underwear distributor` building in Alphen aan den Rijn, Holland. It was build in the middle of a pond. used too see it everyday on my way to work. Cool too see it back on the internet
30 is Pushkin 31 is Yevgeny Leonov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Leonov) - his character from "Gentlemen of Fortune" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068519/) The person on 32 is actually Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow (the sculpture by Tsereteli is indeed called "A Street Sweeper")
#78, the bull lying down in Manhattan, is definitely a Photoshop. That picture was taken at the almost-very-bottom of Broadway where Wall Street begins, called Bowling Green. There IS a sculpture of a bull at Bowling Green, but he's standing confidently and isn't knocked over -- unless there's been some vandalism since I left NYC six months ago.
No.16 & 20 - Statue of two pissing men in the heart of Prague. There is also a phone number which you can text and they piss the message into the water. Btw, for the next part I suggest David Cerny's babies on the Zizkov TV Tower. Also quite weird. Keep going, DRB! :-)
That pod is actually the six shell bubble house, or "Bulle a six coques" by jean maneval, only 30 or so were made and scattered in the foothills of the french pyrenees. I must have one, even if it means building it myself! (see here http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/bubble.htm)
You should include this one http://englishrussia.com/?p=2307 2 bullets fired in 1857 collided mid air!!! then they were found agin in 2008 over 150 years later!! Imagine the odds.
I think the satellite picture is a bit out of proportion. According to that picture those satellites are the size of Paraguay. I do believe the largest one out there is the size of a school bus. Artistic/journalistic license perhaps.
The submarine collision isn't really that surprising. It's fairly commonplace for more than one nation to be tracking the same events or unknowns at the same time, and that means multiple subs will be operating in the same waters. Unfortunately, the need for stealth means that it's more likely that such collisions will occur.
what satelite picture? I don't see any pictures comparing the satellites size to earth...
If you close one eye and put your hand over the other, your hand will be larger than your visual perception of the universe, but i believe the largest hand i ever saw was the size of compact car.
If the Tunguska event was delayed by several hours, The Earth would not have been hit ... if you want to re-aim that rock, you have to remember that the Earth is a moving, as well as rotating target.
Actually a collision would not have detonated the warheads, outside of a very specific arming and detonation sequence their specifically designed remain inert (even break if necessary) just to prevent that very thing.
"Close call for Europe - Interestingly, had the meteorite struck 4 hours, 47 minutes later, based on the rotation of the earth, it would have hit St. Petersburg, the nation’s capital, rather than some remote area of the country."
HI, the link to the Robert Byron gallery is not working. This sound very interesting. Anyway to fix it? I checked the website but it seem confusing to me.
The first poster is from a danish amusement park, and the text reads (roughly translated): "For safety, we use Castrol" and "See the champion drivers Capt. Wulfhorst and his partner Miss Iris Johnson in their phenomenal car- and motordriving on the vertical wall (Wall of Death)".
Haha! If driving a motorcycle in a giant hamster wheel isn't dangerous enough, obviously the best solution is to put a freakin' lion on your motorbike too.
Reality Hacking was utterly ludicrous, but I thought this post was a bit interesting. Anyway, no one pays for this content and it's usually fantastic, so sod off.
I have bought at least one thing from a advertisement here (a book). So maybe the ones not contributing to the income stream should sod off? It is a comment section, not a praise-only defender of the faith section.
"The Man Who Shrunk The World" cover is golden. Love the skeleton-influenced costume. A bit of blog-hunting suggests that it's a Jack Kirby cover from Strange Tales #92, January 1962.
Oops, didn't quite get to the end of the blogtrail before posting. Somebody scanned and upped the Kirby story from that issue, since it's never been reprinted (guess why).
If anyone's interested: http://monsterblog.oneroom.org/stories/?story=shrunk&page=1
We have just added your latest post "Dark Roasted Blend: Apocalyptic Scientific Experiments" to our Directory of Science . You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory and get a huge base of visitors to your website.
The photo you labeled "Ice Train" appears in the fantasy art compilation "Spectrum 15 here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-15-Contemporary-Fantastic-Underwood/dp/1599290278
It's one of my favorite images in the book! If you are a fan an fantasy art (like me) you should check it out!
Wowsers, Mr. Simon is the real deal. About time the Future looked like itself again, isn't it?
Looking at these images takes me back to the best psychedelic trip of my life. One merry night in 1981 I spent a pile of cash on naughty things and a copy of Syd Mead's book "Sentinel." Hours and hours in Tomorrowland...
If it weren't for the creepily starved and pin-up girls he envisions as pilots... Maybe they put so much money in their vehicles that they could afford neither food nor protective clothing.
Those will never sell. Here's the design process that works:
Homer: All right, you eggheads! I want a place in this car to put my drink! Designer: Sir, the-the car has a beverage holder. Homer: Hello! Hello, Einstein! I said a place to put my drink. You know those Super Slakers they sell at the Kwik-E-Mart? (Makes a large circle with his hands.) The cup is this big! Designer: (Talks as he writes on a clipboard.) Extremly large beverage holder. Homer: I'm not done yet. You know that little ball you put on the aerial so you can find your car in the parking lot? That should be on every car! Designer: (Talks as he writes on a clipboard.) Little ball. Homer: And some things are so snazzy, they never go out of style! Like tail fins and bubble domes and shag carpeting.
The picture with two green tram cars is most probably taken in the AnsaldoBreda workshop. The damaged vehicle on the right was involved in a crash in Milan, near Porta Romana, on 10 october 2008: it derailed due to an error of the driver, who was using his mobile phone while driving. After going out of the track, the Jumbotram hit another tram, an older model made in 1927 (those tram, called "Carrelli" are one of the symbols of the city). Noone was injured, but people on the older vehicle got blocked inside the car due to a failure of emergency opening of the doors.
The video at the end isn't a train hitting a concrete wall, it is a crash test for nuclear waste transport containers. The container is on a flatbed train car that has been turned on it's side, and the train hits the container (the yellow box)
Sorry if you know this already, but it has happened that trains that are to be scrapped have been cleaned up and then dumped in the sea to make artificial reefs for wildlife and divers to enjoy. That may explain the underwater image. Or maybe not! :-)
The crushed black tanker car was the result of implosion. "The general-purpose tank car in the photo below was being steam cleaned in preparation for maintenance. The job was still in progress at the end of the shift so the employee cleaning the car decided to block in the steam. The car had no vacuum relief so as it cooled, the steam condensed and the car imploded." Keep in mind that steam has around 1600 times the volume of condensed water.
Two links:
How tank car implosions work. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2008/04/22/how-tank-car-implosions-work/
Lessons Learned in 2001: Over/Under Pressure Relief Required for System Safety from the Richland Operations Office Department of Energy http://www.hanford.gov/RL/?page=525&parent=506
I'd have to watch the episode again, but the underwater subway car is probably a screencap from an episode of CSI: New York. It' looks awfully familiar...
The train on the "unfinished" bridge is out there deliberately; there's nothing that will stop it from backing up in that image.
The imploded tank car might be from a test/demonstration that was done - I'd have to dig out the video again and see if it's the same location.
Train disaster happen quite often, luckily mostly without fatalities. One example for a catastrophe is the disaster in Eschede/Germany, where a high-speed train derailed and collided with a bridge, killing 101 people on board.
montparnasse is a station in paris, france, quite in the center of the city. its original name is "gare montparnasse". from there, trains depart to the south-western part of france.
You should look up the train wreck in Prince George, British Columbia about 2 years ago. We all stood in the park and watched the train burning across the river. You could see the smoke all around town.
Picture #6 in the Russian section shows two rubber tired wheels attached to some wreckage between the two trains. The spiked objects to the right are diamond harrows which are not quite obsolete farm equipment. There's another harrow in the center further back and a badly bent on on the left. The wreckage with wheels is the harrow cart. It looks like a farmer was crossing the track when he shouldn't have.
Ad. Utterly Surreal: Tilt-Shift Train Wrecks I'm not convinced... these look as actulal tilt-shift photos, not "PS trickery". Of course tilt-shift can be immitated by retouching a photo on PS or other software but why bother? The fun You get with a tilt shift lens (such as PC-E Nikkor 24mm for example) is worth a lot more than time spent on your PS. The PS tilt-shift retouched photos will NEVER look as good as taken with an actual perspective-correction lens. Peace to You all. I love this blog.
The photo of former New York City rollingstock unit 9577 is *definitely* not a train wreck. As someone mentioned before, this is one of the repurposed Redbirds that have been stripped of usable parts, cleaned, and dumped off the eastern seaboard. Please get it right, or note it.
If you're going to show an accident involving NYC rollingstock, at least show a real accident
Check this out.. Two photos of the only train wreck in US history where four steam locomotive trains collided... occurred at East Thompson Connecticut, Dec.4, 1891.
@ujanja They were intentionally put there to encourage reef growth on the otherwise flat and featureless ocean floor along the eastern seaboard off the coast of the Carolinas. This reef growth has also been great for tourism and fishing in the area.
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55 Comments:
The same Nazgul sits in Salzburg, Austria.
(btw, I think it's indeed Imperator Palpatine ;))
Picture 85 (More milking):
The location is Treviso, Italy.
Image #9 was of the sculpture of Alison Lapper, which was displayed on Trafalger Square's (London) 4th plinth for a while:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Lapper#Marc_Quinn_sculpture
#39 is in Raffle Place, Singapore
#27 is Baron Münchhausen, pulling himself and his horse out of the swamp by his own hair...
For your future issues:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/1234902886/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/3119404043/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/2509692144/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/3159050142/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/280527127/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/829260349/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markb120/286680290/
Once I would open the big wallet in Melbourne. It lies in front of a bank. But they locked it safely ... *ç%&$!!/*
#58 is definitely an HR Giger ,a href="http://www.authenticsociety.com/img/hrGiger.maske.jpg">creation/a>.
#54 is in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nice blog!
So creative and weird!!!
#64 is a Jens Galschiøt sculpture "Survival of the Fattest", which resides in Ringkøbing. But attends UN meetings, a powerful statement about the rich western world vs the poor third world.
http://sculptures.aidoh.dk/index.html?&view=list&lang=uk&year=0&arttype=0&motive=4&material=0&sizecat=5&availability=0&view=list&order=2&rpp=15&start=0&ID=341
gigantic impaled beetle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viejito/179747777/
(by Jan Fabre, in Leuven, Belgium)
#45 is in Malmö, Sweden at the Triangeln square. It's ghastly!
27 is Baron Münchhausen, getting himself and his horse out of a swamp by pulling his own hair.
No 62. is in Sarajevo, and it is kind of hommage to a bicycle, main form of transportation during the 92-95 war.
Amazing sculptures!
In 2005 they designed a monument for Prince Bernhard , in memory of the deceased honorary citizen of Wageningen in WWII. The statue, called Freedom's fire, was in the shape of a penis, and caused a lot of commotion.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansbotje/62148772/
The different parts are actually erecting.
#58 is a sculpture by Swiss artist called H.R. Giger and is called Birth Machine Baby. I'm not sure where it is.
On the other hand, good selection and again a great post! Keep it up!
#54 is located in Stockholm, Sweden, right outside Berzelii Park. It's really awesome - the first time I saw it, from behind, I thought it was a real person.
heres one in motion, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsMIkDT7Dhw
its on cuba street in wellington nz.
apparently elijah wood pissed in it (along with a lot of other drunk people on any given night)
the water goes everywhere and its constantly breaking!
#84 - I recognized the robot from the Ghibli/Miyazaki animated film "Laputa: Castle in the Sky". It seems to be in the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan.
http://www.tautoz.com/ghiblimuseum/
#61 is in Nuremberg, Germany
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11278107
83
"Fontana delle tette" in Treviso North East Italy
great selection, I am amazed you keep coming up with these great posts.
#58 is indeed Giger, and is in front of the H.R. Giger museum in his birthplace of Gruyere, Switzerland.
http://www.hrgigermuseum.com/index2.php
I was just there this summer - the cafe across the lane from the museum is super freaky too:
http://www.hrgiger.com/barmuseum.htm
#2 are the Molecule Men by artist Jonathan Borofsky. We have a similar statue in Berlin.
We also have this cooking robot. ;-)
I'm pretty sure I saw #58, the Giger piece, at his museum in Gruyere, Switzerland.
#78 Dead Bull and #79 Worshiping McDonalds are so obviously photoshopped. Why include them?
Otherwise another great drb post.
26 is in Petrozavodsk, Russia
The Sharks are all from San Jose, California not Los Angeles... they were part of a fundraiser and represent local support for the NHL San Jose Sharks!
But where is #57 from? I have to know!
Now holding my breath...
I've seen a similar statue to 18 in Salzburg, here's a link to a picture i scrounged up from the internets:
http://damiandaily.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/salzburg-statue.jpg
I must admit, every time I come home to England through Scotland, (I work in Kilbride but live in Leeds) I see the Angel of the North, and it just makes me feel like I'm home again. It's a sight for sore eyes, and no matter how long I'm away, I love coming back, just to behold that sight.
By the way, thank you Avi for another great addition to DRB.
the walker vitoria spain.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=caminante+vitoria&m=text
also in the same city
battle of vitoria monument
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mynth/2342590565/
this one is called by people el torero.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luismi_sanz/3276569390/sizes/l/
I believe "weird face" 55 is poet Boris Pasternak. You know, "Doctor Zhivago" and so on. ;-)
#37 in not Illustration to the "Fox and Crow" fable, but a monument to the cheese "Дружба" (Friendship).
You should add "city without a heat" its a statue in rotterdam in rembrance of the WWII bombing.
and by heat I mean heart and by rembrance I mean remembrance.
nr.10 the thumb is also in Denmark, beit an original i'm not sure, but it's in Louisianna museum.
My votes are for 3, 4 and 64.
Oh you guys would gonna love Vigo, Spain! :DDD
Awesome weird statues everywhere! :D
Some examples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leorolim/sets/72157609488597111/
hehe, #3 & #4, a match made in, er, bronze
nice little ice-cream in cologne germany:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg/399px-Oldenburg_claes_eistuete_koeln.jpg
I'm not sure why you have the "maddeningly bizarre" part in the title. Why would this make you angry? That's a weird choice of word. But I enjoy the big grouping of public art. Some of it is awesome. Some of it is bordering on dysfunctional (what's with all the urination?)
Oh, and I agree - lose the photoshopped stuff. There's only two of them, and the serve no purpose to include in there.
oh melbourne onesss ^^
the purse is coollll its on the shopping strip in melbourne called bourke st
when i was really young, i used to love those skinny dudes, people used to put gummy rings on their fingers and sometimes cigarettes in their mouths, but now when someone does it, homeless people steal them !! :(
Hi Avi, No.12, the Angel Of The North, in Gateshead UK, is by Anthony Gormley. Check out his site here: http://www.antonygormley.com/home.html
My favourites by him are, 'Another Place' - men standing on the beach at Crosby,Liverpool, and 'Sound II', which stands in the often flooded crypt of Winchester Cathedral.
The crane in Wateringen, Holland was first build in front of the `zeeman` (underwear distributor` building in Alphen aan den Rijn, Holland. It was build in the middle of a pond. used too see it everyday on my way to work. Cool too see it back on the internet
30 is Pushkin
31 is Yevgeny Leonov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Leonov) - his character from "Gentlemen of Fortune" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068519/)
The person on 32 is actually Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow (the sculpture by Tsereteli is indeed called "A Street Sweeper")
#78, the bull lying down in Manhattan, is definitely a Photoshop. That picture was taken at the almost-very-bottom of Broadway where Wall Street begins, called Bowling Green. There IS a sculpture of a bull at Bowling Green, but he's standing confidently and isn't knocked over -- unless there's been some vandalism since I left NYC six months ago.
Wow, I really would like to structure a world tour around this post! But since I'm broke, thanks for the virtual tour.
Cool post! Just remember -- Don't look away. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead.
;-)
No.16 & 20 - Statue of two pissing men in the heart of Prague. There is also a phone number which you can text and they piss the message into the water.
Btw, for the next part I suggest David Cerny's babies on the Zizkov TV Tower. Also quite weird.
Keep going, DRB! :-)
Nº 35 in Barcelona Spain
Try this awful one in Prague. Pics 22, 23 and 24.
http://haha.nu/funny/strange-statues-around-the-world/
Actually, 22, 23 and 24 down in the Around the World section. My apologies.
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