20+ Hilarious and Surprising Monuments and Artwork You’ll See Today

Most cities have their monuments: statue of the founder, an important writer, or someone who has done good for the community; a bust or a tribute to the first inhabitants of the region; between others. Some municipalities invest in art in squares and parks, to make the environment more pleasant and playful.

Sometimes, however, the artists who create works for public spaces really surprise and call people’s attention for different reasons: the exaggerated size of their works, very original ideas and, in some cases, aesthetics of questionable taste.

O awesome.club brought together some curious examples of urban art around the world and in Brazil, including giant cherry and peanuts, sea creatures with human features, hippos, crocodiles and sharks appearing in unexpected places and even legendary extraterrestrials. At the bonusthe Brazilian homage to a great French actress.

The sculpture of the crab with a human head can be visited in the Haw Par Villa park, in Singapore. She is one of many figures who reproduce beings and scenes from Eastern mythology and who help parents teach moral lessons to their children.

More than 20 amusing works are part of Abilene’s playful sculpture circuit. One of the most curious is Dino Bob “interacting” with a VW Beetle on top of a building.

Rosie the fish girl, dressed all in pink, welcomes visitors to Sekiu, a small fishing village in northern Washington state, USA.

This giant peanut was built in 1976 by three supporters of former US President Jimmy Carter, and the intention was to imitate his characteristic smile. The peanut was first seen in Evansville, Indiana, at a parade welcoming Carter as he was campaigning for the presidency. The sculpture was later moved to Plains, Georgia, the former president’s hometown.

This giant spoon with a cherry is the work of plastic artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It was inaugurated in 1988 and is part of the sculpture garden of the American city of Minneapolis, in the state of Minnesota.

The green giant from the city of Blue Earth, in the state of Minnesota, refers to the brand of canned and frozen vegetables Green Giant, a traditional company in the region since 1903.

The amusing artistic intervention, which represents a flock of hippos in a pond, can be seen at the zoo in Taipei, capital of Taiwan.

This bronze sculpture, titled Life Underground, has intrigued passengers on the New York subway since 2001. A critique of capitalism, it depicts a man with the head of a bag of money being devoured by a crocodile that emerges from the depths. Among many meanings, its author, Tom Otterness, says that the work symbolizes “the impossibility of understanding life in New York”.

This sculpture installed in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, has also intrigued passers-by since 1985. It is located in Saintelette Square and represents a policeman caught by surprise by a young man who emerges from the manhole. Sculptor Tom Frantzen said he wanted to represent the “authority of young people” with the work.

Tourists may find the image of a shark coming down from the sky and invading a house through the roof amusing. However, the work of the English artist John Buckley is a critique of the nuclear power that devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and also seeks to recall other atomic disasters, such as Chernobyl.

In the artist’s view, the shark represents the strength of an unexpected situation and our impotence in the face of it. The work was commissioned by the owner of the house, radio broadcaster Bill Hein, who lived at the address, in Headington, a suburb of the city of Oxford, England.

The eight-meter fork that impresses tourists in Switzerland is part of the Alimentarium collection, a museum that tells the story of food. The work of the artist Jean-Pierre Zaugg was installed on Lake Geneva, in Vevey, in 1995, for an exhibition that celebrated the museum’s 10th anniversary, and was removed in 1996. But the citizens missed the fork and, through of a public petition, asked for his return.

It’s almost impossible not to want to take a photo interacting with this sculpture, super popular in the Punta del Este resort, Uruguay. The hand or The fingers – or yet Man Emerging to Life — is the work of Chilean Mario Irarrázabal, who participated in an open-air sculpture contest held in 1982. He chose Praia Brava to create his art, which has become a postcard of the city.

the thumb It is one of the most famous works by the French sculptor César Baldaccini and there are several copies scattered throughout cities around the world. The most famous, however, is installed in the financial district of La Défense, in Paris. The sculpture was made from the cast of the artist’s own thumb.

In 1998, when installed in a public square, this crazy traffic light caused controversy among drivers in London, England, who were confused by their lights and did not know whether to stop or go ahead. Over time, the work of Frenchman Pierre Vivant became popular with citizens and tourists alike. The sculpture was first exhibited in the Limehouse district and then moved to Billingsgate Market.

The mining town of Varginha made the Brazilian news in 1996, when three girls claimed to have seen an extraterrestrial being. The case was hotly debated in the press and in conversations between friends. But who profited from the story was the city’s tourism, which capitalized on the controversy and created some historical landmarks, such as the water tank in the shape of a flying saucer.

Varginha ET statues were erected in a public square, to the delight of tourists. Which one would you like to take a picture with?

Many people like bauru, the sandwich prepared with roast beef (or ham), cheese and tomato. But anyone who believes that the delight was created in Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo, is wrong. His birth took place at the Ponto Chic snack bar, in 1937, in the capital, São Paulo. Who invented the recipe was a customer, radio host Casimiro Pinto Neto, nicknamed Bauru for having been born in the countryside.

The municipality of Bauru appropriated the fame and, in 2008, erected a monument in honor of this glory of Brazilian gastronomy. The statue of Bauruzinho was stolen by students, but it was recovered and today it can be admired at the city’s bus station.

Reading this post, maybe you already felt like taking pictures next to peanuts, hippos, ET and Bauruzinho. But is it possible to pose next to a coxinha? Yes, the snack bar Coxinhas Douradas, with two stores in the city of Araraquara in São Paulo, has sculptures of the smiling snack with a ribbon on the head to attract tourists and foodies.

Lindóia, in the interior of São Paulo, is famous for its mineral water. Since 1978, this natural wealth has been celebrated at the Monumento da Garrafa, which has already been displayed in different parts of the city, but continues to delight tourists.

The statue of the bandeirante Borba Gato, in the city of São Paulo, has divided opinions since it was erected, in the late 1950s. Some consider it a monument to bad taste and some find its imposing vision beautiful. In any case, anyone passing by Avenida Santo Amaro cannot fail to notice the work of artist Júlio Guerra: it is 10 meters high (13, including the pedestal).

In the 1960s, French actress Brigitte Bardot, at the height of her fame and beauty, spent some time in Búzios — at the time, a peaceful fishing village on the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Much because of her, Búzios became the target of real estate speculation and became a busy destination, with inns, hotels, bars, restaurants and nightlife.

In 1999, Brigitte was immortalized with a statue on the boardwalk that bears her name, the Orla Bardot, at Praia da Armação. A tribute is always welcome, but, at the very least, there are doubts about the artist’s fidelity to the original model…

Is there anything similar to the works of art we saw here in your city? Did you take a photo next to any interesting and different monuments like these? Tell us where it is and, if you want, post your photo in the comments.