Miscellany: 10 Bizarre Sculptures You Never Knew Existed
But well, if you already know, at least comment below your ‘top 3 most bizarre sculptures’ from or not from this list.
1. The Unknown— Magnús Tómasson
Several countries have monuments to the Unknown Soldier, but perhaps only Iceland has a sculpture honoring — and lightly satirizing — the thankless, anonymous job of the bureaucrat. The 1994 sculpture by Magnús Tómasson depicts a man in a suit holding a briefcase, with his head and shoulders subsumed in a slab of unsculpted stone.
See more on Unusual Places.
2. Melancholic — Albert Gyorgy
Melancholic was created by Albert György and can be found in Geneva, Switzerland. Personally, this impressed in me a thought of ‘void’ and ‘deep emptiness’ in life. Metaphorically and visually powerful for me that seeing it on screen touches visceral emotions familiar to me over the years.
See more on Totally Buffalo.
3. Thrive — Daniel Popper
The sculptural installation features an enormous figure ripping open its chest — like a fairy-tale giant come to life. Crafted in glass-fiber reinforced concrete, the sublime figure weighs about 14 tons and stands over 30 feet tall. The stunning structure also features a fern-adorned archway that viewers can walk through. The chest of the contemplative giant gently opens itself up, exposing its surprising green interior.
See more on My Modern Met.
4. Le Pouce — César Baldaccini
Le Pouce is a fragment of reality, a symbol of practice and manual work. Caesar plays on the rupture of scale, giving this anatomical fragment the dimensions of a monumental sculpture. Caesar’s Le Pouce is always raised towards the sky: a sign of assent, of implacable optimism, but also of vanity. If there are several examples of Caesar’s famous thumb, the one at La Défense, a technical feat of enlarged moulding, is the most imposing with its 12 metres high and its weight of 18 tons. Le Pouce is present in many institutional collections as well as in public spaces around the world: Seoul, Washington and Koblenz.
See more on Paris La Defense.
5. Mind Bending — Johnson Tsang
Hong Kong-based artist Johnson Tsang creates porcelain works of art with a twist — oftentimes, literally. He sculpts rubbery and realistic human faces that are distorted in mind-bending ways reminiscent of Surrealist paintings. Looking at each one feels like a view into Tsang’s subconscious. In some of the busts, hands emerge from the head to manipulate the face, such as scraping through the facial features or stretching the skin beyond the skull to reveal empty space within. Others depict faces that have been completely scrambled by a whirlpool or melted into a puddle with the ears, nose, and eyes all misplaced.
See more on My Modern Met.
6. Lazy Lady Liberty
This is ‘Reclining Liberty’ in New York City. The famous Statue of Liberty is taking a break in Morningside Park. Artist Zaq Landsberg describes the artwork as “a mashup of the Statue of Liberty and the giant reclining Buddha statues found in Asia,” Patch.com reported in April 2021.
See more on Timeout.
7. Porcelain Sculpture — Kate MacDowell
Kate MacDowell is a ceramic artist from Portland, Oregon USA. She creates interesting and bizarre handcrafted porcelain sculptures that reflect man’s relationship with the natural world and the reality of our current impact on the environment.
“In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment.”
See more on Colossal.
8. The Runner (Glass Sculpture)
Dromeas, also called The Runner, is made of individual pieces of glass stacked atop each other to take the blurred shape of a runner in motion. Thousands of sharp, jagged pieces of glass form the sculpture. The running figure is the work of Costas Varotsos, who began working on it in 1988 and didn’t finish until 1994. It was originally erected at Omonia Square, but it was later moved because people grew concerned construction and the vibrations from the underground metro would cause it to shatter or topple.
See more on Atlas Obscura.
9. La Plus Belle — Max Ernst
Ernst is known for the inspired development of frottage and decalcomania, process-based methods of artistic production that served to unlock the powers of the imagination. These techniques also infused his approach to sculpture, but resulted in a very different vocabulary of simple forms derived from everyday objects he had on hand. Ernst would often accumulate and recombine these ordinary shapes, initially cast in plaster, to create anthropomorphic sculptures of rare poetry, humor, and symbolic power.
See more on MaxErnst_Paramyths.
10. Layered Paper Artwork — Daniel A du Preez
South Africa-based artist Daniel A du Preez creates 3-dimensional visual patterns using layers of intricately cut paper.
See more on Inspiration Grid.
Are there any sculptures that caught your attention? How bizarre are these?
