I mentioned recently in a Great Debates thread that I was sorry to see that the huge iron statue of Vulcan down in Birmingham, Alabama, might not be re-erected, as Senator John McCain has labeled it a pork-barrel project…I went on to opine that our federal tax dollars be spent to put up giant iron statues all OVER the USA.
As it was Great Debates, I was ignored as a pusillanimous nincompoop (except for Gadarene, who also wants big giant statues everywhere…thanks for the support, Gad!).
I was reflecting upon my luck in living in New York City, which, for a US city, has an impressive number of Great Big Scary Statues…the Goddess of Liberty is the most famous, looming ominously over the bay. There’s the four monstrous Allegorical depictions of the Continents, lined up like a hellish tribunal before the old Customs House.
I was lucky enough to live in Paris during the summer of 1980, and I have fond memories of it as the true home of Great Big Scary Statues: Saint Michael graphically slaying a dragon right where the Boul Mich hits the Seine…the great green Charlemagne outside Notre Dame Cathedral…the colossal topless goddesses with amazing granite knockers who flank the entry to the Grand Palais.
My future travel plans include excursions to numerous other Great Big Scary Statues. I want to see the Germania, near Rudesheim, on a hilltop overlooking the Rhine. And Schwanthaler’s Bavaria, in Munich. And the nightmarish monuments of Bruno Schmitz, especially the Kaiser Wilhelm monument at Koblenz, and the terrifying Volkerschlachdenkmal at Leipzig!
Does anyone else have this mania for Great Big Scary Statues? (I mean STATUES, not sculpture. They need to be representational to hold my interest. Calder and his enormous abstracts be damned.)
Are there Great Big Scary Statues where YOU live? Should I come by to see them?
Well, they’re not large enough to count as Great Big* Scary Statues, but there’s an inexplicable pair of kneeling rams outside the Sears at the Cross County Mall in Yonkers. They’re just there, at the entrance to the parking lot, and bear no resemblance to any of the rest of the shopping center’s decor. I truly believe that they’re left over from the time when the parking lot was a temple to some god who demanded daily infant sacrifices.
There’s also a really impressive Olympic tribute (I think) statue near the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. Now that sucker’s huge. Very impressive. I can’t find a link to a pic, though, or the actual name of the thing.
I just came back from the Joisey Shore, and visited Lucy the Elephant, the only-remaining Giant Elephant Hotel (built in 1881). Very scary and demonic, though I don’t know if she counts as a statue: http://www.lucytheelephant.org/netindex.html
The big ol’ head of Constantine has always given me the willies, too.
We have an art garden here that has a monstrously huge statue in the front. (Well, I think it qualifies as a statue. I’m not too clear on your distinction of statue/sculpture)
The garden is called Brookgreen Gardens, and they have this huge statue at the entrance of the garden. It’s a bronze statue of two horses. It’s really cool for two reasons: one, obviously because of its size, and two, for the detail on the statue.
They have a webpage, http://www.brookgreen.org, where you can see what all they have in the Garden. I went there on a field trip in middle school, and I recommend it highly if you get down this way.
Hey Uke, you could come out and see Portlandia. She looks pretty scary in this shot, and if by any chance you like beer, I’m sure we could find some other points of interest.
BTW, here’s a picture of the Freemont troll for your viewing pleasure. It’s made of concrete, IIRC.
In Dortmund Square in the centre of Leeds, there is a statue of a man carrying a barrel of beer. This is to symbolise the twin town relationship between Leeds and Dortmund.
The statue looks uncannily like Chairman Mao. linky linky
Everytime I tell people that have never been to Atlanta about this thing, they never believe me so I have included this link: atlanta.citysearch.com/profile/2922118
to prove that this thing does exist.
It is called “The Big Chicken”, is seven stories tall, rolls its eyes, snaps it’s beak open and closed and currently houses a KFC. The thing lords over one of the largest suburban intersections. I swear if you watch it long enough you will notice that those eyes are watching specific cars go by. With that beak openiing and closing, I keep expecting it to let out a Godzilla like roar and start pecking at cars like they were kernals of corn.
The picture in the link doesn’t quite do it justice, but was the best I could find with a short search.
-Beeblebrox
“I’m a pretty dangerous dude when I’m cornered.”
“Yeah, you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel.”
In front of Elmira Prison in Elmira NY, there is a humongus statue of one man helping another man to his feet. One man is down on all fours, the other man stands behind him, arms around his waist. Both men are naked. In front of a prison.
Jesus, you can say THAT again. How the hell did Nashville come up with funding for THAT Cyclopean horror?
Okay, I’m definitely stopping in Nashville on my way to Portland, to pass nervously underneath that Portlandia chick. Great Big Scary Statues get bonus points when the artist has them leaning horribly over the viewer, like Sylvester about to leap onto Tweety Bird.
There’s a good one in the Jardins du Luxembourg in Paris: it depicts some mythological scene where two lovers get smooshed by an evil giant. The designer set up a kind of a little idyllic grotto, with a perfectly-formed white marble couple lying in each other shapely arms, and then you look up and there’s AN ENORMOUS GHASTLY GIANT leaning WAY the hell over the rocks above them, cast in an ugly greenish bronze to contrast with the pristine marble of the lovers. This one is fun because you’re not the one actually threatened, and you can shiver on the lovers’ behalf.
I’ve been to see the Fremont Troll, which is quite impressive…that’s the only one I can think of that was MEANT to be creepy, as opposed to Uplifting and Grand.
The Constantine head is one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever come across…I was in the museum in Rome, and I wandered into the courtyard, and THERE IT WAS, leering down at me. I think it’s those horrible hollow eyes.
Thanks also for the Big Scary Animal tips, but they don’t chill the blood like the homunculi do. Although I might make a side trip to see the Yonkers Rams, as they sound truly bizarre.
Okay, so he’s not especially big, but I still find thisguy kinda creepy. He’s sitting in a park on the Indiana University campus…not too bad during the day, but finding the guy just sitting on the bench at night…weird.
Pah! Titchy running dog capitalist decadent art efforts are nothing to Soviet People’s art: See how Mother Russia Statue on Memet Hill in Volgograd dwarfs Lady so-called Liberty!
Oooooh, yeah, I love that big ol’ MOTHERLAND in Volgograd. Talk about theeeewackin’ thighs, man, she’s got 'em.
Biggirl: I was searching for an Elmira photo, to check out those interesting fellows you describe…do you know the statue outside the College of Surgery in Chicago? (Whatever it’s called, you drive past it every time you zip past the Gold Coast on Lake Shore Drive.)
Not humoungous, unfortunately, but definitely larger than lifesize 1920s-era Doctor in full gown and cap, supposed to be humanely aiding the twisted Invalid at his feet.
But because of the sculptor’s “modernist” interpretation, it looks more like an S&M fantasy…LOVE it!
