Sculptural Weirdness in Public Places, Part 1

"QUANTUM SHOT" #546
Link - by Avi Abrams

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

30. Resting from trouble, in Moscow - via

31. More Russian characters
32. A Street Sweeper, by Tzereteli - via

33. Hungry customers share a biscuit, via

34. Try to sit on this bench (street art by Brad Downey)
35. ...in the meantime something big and round is getting ready to fall; Barcelona, Spain

36. Turin, Italy
37. Illustration to the "Fox and Crow" fable by Krylov - via

38. A kiss in Kharkov, Ukraine
39. A fat, fat pigeon, Raffle Place, Singapore - via

40. Ear creature in Cologne, Germany
41. Buddies, in Cheltenham, England - via

42. Hidden in the trees, Amsterdam - via
43. "A Running Knot", frolicking in grass, - via

44. More plumbing atrocities, in Mytyschi, Moscow
45. Crying Skull Monument, in Malmö, Sweden at the Triangeln Square - via

46. Some parenting angst, in Vigelands Park, Oslo - Norway, more info - via

47. Holey umbrella in Minsk, Belarus
48. Bathers in Singapore - via

49. Is this troll (Seattle, Washington) -
50. - is reaching for this purse? (Melbourne, Australia) - via

51. Flying families, Moscow...
52. and overturned horses (by David Cerny, Prague) - via

53. Urban guys resting
54. and working... in Stockholm, Sweden, right outside Berzelii Park - via

55, 56. Weird faces in Moscow, via Tatiana Ionova

57. Statue in Hungary, definitely having issues...
58. Steampunk character, "Birth Machine Baby" by H. R. Giger, more - via

59. Spectacular urban "fountain" in Karlsruhe, Germany - via Ryan Stoker

60. A miserable student in one of Russian universities
61. And another miserable guy, Nuremberg, Germany - more

62. Bicycle in concrete, in Sarajevo.
63. FDR Memorial in Washington, DC - via

64. Downtown Salt Lake City, showing "Survival of the Fattest", info
65. Anatomy lesson in Manhattan - via

66. These ones are classics... Melbourne, Australia
67. Los Angeles, California - via

68. These are probably less known: "Cry in the Wilderness" in Minsk
69. and playful sculptures, unknown location

70. Some metamorphosis, unknown
71. Square head in meditation, in Nice, France - via

72. Strong!
73. and weak... Melbourne, Australia - via

74. Lenin having a break from politics

75. Russian chair stands firm on ice
76. Our melting economy, installation in Manhattan, more info - via

77. The Bear is doing great (Berlin)
78. ... and the Bull is dead (Manhattan), Photoshop? - via

79. While humans worship MacDonalds (with Photoshop help) ...
80. Apes are studying classics! - via

81. Mermaid milking herself, Bologna, Italy
82. and a guy, not really having a brain, looks like... - via

83. More milking, Treviso, Italy
84. and robot sculpture from "Laputa", Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan - via

Now, for the unnumbered stuff, which is simply too interesting to be put into one voting pool:

Communist monuments in Yugoslavia (built in memory of various WWII battles) remind me of Flying Spaghetti Monsters... or "Neon Genesis Evangelion":

(images credit: Jan Kempenaers)

This is an entirely different kind of street art (Germany), simply brilliant:

(image 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!

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