WFMU's Beware of the Blog scratches itches in places BoingBoing and Metafilter are now too bloated and clumsy to reach. Today they linked to this excellent blog compilation of pictures of strange statues from which the abouve images are taken. Lots of the statues are variations on the "small & quirky" theme we're a bit too familiar with in Melbourne, but there are also plenty of genuinely tasteless, vulgar, weird and ugly / disturbing objects included in the collection.
The featured Melbourne statues are Public Purse, Three Businessmen, and the upside down Charles La Trobe which was ewntered in the Lempriere Award 2005 and for a while could be found in Treasury Gardens (don't know if it's still there.) I think there are much worse sculptures in Melbourne than these. Just off the top of my head I'd suggest the dude surfing on a hand is which hidden behind the Concert Hall (and which I must get around to blogging about one day), the Pathfinder, and the horrible statue of John Batman in the CBD. What do you think is Melbourne's worst piece of public statuary?
7 comments:
The comments following the pictures were by and large so annoying I couldn't stop reading them. '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.' etc etc
Yes, that was my reaction, pretty much.
Those people who look into the Telstra building on Lonsdale St freak the hell out of me. There is something peculiar about how the male statue is holding the female statute.
Kate - I haven't seen that sculpture and now I am very intrigued: next time I go into town I'll look out for it.
Has any council yet accepted the *cough* generous offer to re-erect that pick-up-sticks milennium arch thing on their main drag? If so, does it still have the Tattersall's ad bolted to the side, like the original incarnation on Princes Bridge?
Last I heard (ages ago) it was snapped up by Casey or Hume or one of those Calder Park type councils. I thought it was going to straddle the Hume Highway & welcome drivers arriving in Melbourne from Sydney. But it hasn't appeared - perhaps they couldn't figure out how to put it back together again.
From the looks of it, they couldn't figure out how to put it together in the first place! Bam! Bada-Bing! Thankyou folks, I'm here all week!
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