Statues... What You Got?

[studpuppet]

One of my best mates is Morley born and bred and still lives there, so I've been drinking round the place on a few occasions. I am genuinely stumped to think of 17 things to do in Morley, aside from pub crawling.

Meet up with Paul Morley, Eric Morley, Robert Morley... er, that's it.

[buzby]

Incest and Birds.

it's primary purpose is as a cellphone mast.

Liverpool has millions of Beatles-related statues that are all too boring to mention. Of the non-Fab Four-based statuary, one of the most famous is Liverpool Resurgent, which was placed over the entrance to the old Lewis's department store when it was rebuilt after being bombed during the war (it was commissioned as a symbol of the rebuilding of the city, large swathes of which had been reduced to rubble by the Luftwaffe due to the strategic importance of the docks). It quickly gained the nickname 'Dickie Lewis':


More recently, there is the SuperLambBanana. It was created in 1998 by Taro Chiezo for the ArtTransPennine Exhibition as a warning of the dangers of genetic engineering, and brought to Liverpool to celebrate the reopening of the Tate Gallery. It was originally positioned on Wapping opposite the Tate's Albert Dock site, and became very popular with tourists. Sadly, the Wapping site was part of the large chunk of the city centre that was 'gifted' to the Duke Of Westminister to create Liverpool One, so it then got moved up to a street corner on Tithebarn St in the John Moores University campus, well out of the way for tourists.

It was chosen as the symbol of the 2008 Capital Of Culture campaign, and as part of that discussions were made with Chiezo about purchasing it for the city (as it was only on loan). Eventually, the council did a deal to commission a replica that would by housed here for 80 years while the original would be returned to the artist. Unfortunately like most things that are the council's responsibility it hasn't been looked after very well and in 2019 Chiezo criticised the council over it's condition.

Another of the famous recent installations is Anthony Gormley's Another Place, which was placed on Crosby Beach in 2004. it features 108 iron figures based on Gormley's body, placed around a 200-hectare area of the beach.

The figures were due to be relocated in 2007 but a campaign was started to make the site permanent whcih was successful, despite opposition from the council, Coastguard and environmental groups.

Liverpool Reconciliation on Concert Street, which is part of 2 geographic triptychs. The original was created by Chester sculptor Steven Broadbent in 1990 and involved three identical sculptures placed in Liverpool, Belfast and Glasgow, to represent the closing of the sectarian divide in the three cities.

In 2005 and 2009, 2 more copies were cast and placed in Benin and Richmond, Virginia, which along with Liverpool represent the Slave Triangle.

[Gulftastic]

Long before the Angel Of The North, Leeds had a chance to build something similarly striking, but the council wimped out



https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/brick-man-how-plans-unique-leeds-landmark-bit-dust-1422204

I remember being gutted at the time. My resentment has not shrunk much since. Such a missed opportunity.

[The Culture Bunker]

Manchester has a fair few statues, but mainly of boring royal bods and politicians. There is one of Abraham Lincoln, though, which I find has weirdly huge hands:



My hometown didn't have any statues when I was a lad, but since I've left, they put up this effort as a memorial to everyone who worked in the coal industry:

[Gulftastic]

In Leeds, we are trying to build a statue to honor John Holmes.

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/2019/11/11/donate-to-john-holmes-statue/

There are going to be some disappointed tourists.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Great thread.

I'm from Saltash, where we got a bridge done by Brunel, so we've also got a popular (though, honestly, not very good) statue of Brunel standing around by the river staring at his big bridge:



He's a bit of a shortarse but that's actually quite accurate, hence the big hat. You don't see Tom Cruise cutting about in a big hat, do you? Jumping out of a plane with a tall hat on. That would be good. That building to the left is a pub, a proper old man local that doesn't do food or telly, with a massive Union Jack painted on the front. Even as a miserable pretentious lefty Rik-type I have to admit I love that pub and I've come out of there in a right old state many a time and taken a disrespectful selfie with Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Great statue.

Not really a statue, but we've now also got this:


Like pretty much every large public art installation, this 'Cornish Cross' was billed as being our answer to the Angel of the North. I do like it but it's not as big as it should be. It should be at least twice as big and you should be able to see it from all over the town. The main reason I think this is because it would annoy people. It was meant to draw more tourists to Saltash, which is often considered just a place you drive through to get to the good bits of Cornwall. In fact they built a tunnel under the town, so you wouldn't even have to look at it. But I don't care about this sort of justification. Why shouldn't we spend loads of money on a massive metal sculpture? I don't care if it turns a profit. 'Ohh it's a folly'. Follies are cool as fuck, get with it.

This brings me neatly over the river to Plymouth where, to the disgust of many, Anthony Gormley has just plopped this fella down:


He's called LOOK II and I like him. Big brown block man. People have supposedly (per shite local paper) taken to calling him 'Rusty Reg'. Haha imagine being called Reg. He's the subject of controversy because it turned out he cost three quarters of a million pounds. That money could have gone to the food banks, say people who would happily euthanise anyone who's ever set foot in a food bank. Tories. Tories hate this sort of thing, unless it was their idea and made by their mate, in which case money is no object. Here's another fairly recent addition to the delightful vistas of Britain's 'Ocean City':


Here's Messenger, an absolutely massive woman, and a normal sized woman having a fun cheeky time with some confrontational public art. This is outside the theatre and the pose comes from an actor in rehearsal for Othello. As the actor herself pointed out, how great is it to have a statue of a woman actually doing something other than standing around looking bae. Walking around the corner and seeing this is a surprising and exciting experience, and I think it's brilliant.

On the other hand, this happened fairly recently:


Anti-semitic MP Nancy Astor statue, pictured here with anti-semitic MP Boris Johnson cunt. While everyone else is pulling down statues of racists, the good people of Plymouth are happily erecting new ones.  Then again, someone did this:


Nancy Astor may have been racist, but she was also a woman, so it's impossible to say if she was good or not.

Anyway I think it's fair to say we've got something for everyone down here. Personally I want to see more objectively ugly monstrosities that annoy Tories, and they want to see more statues of evil white people. But we can all agree it's fun to drink too many affordable local ales and take a photo with a little green Brunel while carefully watching a fat swan waddle towards you with your soon to be broken arm on its mind.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Why has massive woman got a high-heeled boot for a left hand?

[dissolute ocelot]

There's been quite a bit of Edinburgh already, but it also has a bear (sadly this leads to people complaining about there being more statues of animals than women):

This was in Rosyth a few miles from Edinburgh but has apparently now been moved to Portsmouth: Admiral Duncan, who like all the best people has a gay bar named after him.

[Tony Tony Tony]

In Leeds, we are trying to build a statue to honor John Holmes.

https://www.therhinos.co.uk/2019/11/11/donate-to-john-holmes-statue/

There are going to be some disappointed tourists.

When I saw your post i thought you meant the legendary porn star  (which I guess you probably did?) now tourists would flock to see  a priapic representation of the late great man.

[turnstyle]

Upright Motive No. 2 by Henry Moore[nb]His studio is in a village down the road, so not surprising he's represented here.[/nb]

I'm in your area, Studpuppet. I always wondered why locally there were so many Moore statues around here - I just assumed the local statue supermarket had had a BOGOF offer one week and the local council had gone mental and snapped them all up. The fact that he was based around here makes a bit more sense. Thanks for the knowledge!

[Cuellar]

We got a load of statues of complete idiots that no one bloody cares about

[flotemysost]

Not especially near me but dotted around various bits of London (though I used to live quite near the one below, in Archway):







This one's my favourite though (it's in Wapping)



"OI!!!"

[flotemysost]

I also quite like the foxes and giant cherries on this rooftop in Electric Avenue in Brixton, though I know a lot of people don't.



Although for me the ultimate incongruous rooftop animal statues will always be the Dairy Crest cows:



Now put out to pasture, sadly.

[Dex Sawash]

Electric Avenue

Hat fucked

[idunnosomename]

We got a load of statues of complete idiots that no one bloody cares about

do you live... in britain!??!?!?

[notjosh]

The Catford cat is a classic, as are the Crystal Palace dinosaurs of course:


A relative newcomer is this handsome bastard in Stratford:



I also have to mention this creepy fucker I used to have to stare at when we regularly had after-work drinks at a pub opposite St James Park station:


I suppose it could have been worse though...

Public and press opprobrium centred on Day for its portrayal of a father and his naked son and, in particular, for the proportions of the boy's phallus. Frank Pick, 'the man who built London Transport' and commissioned the work, stood by Epstein and threatened to resign rather than remove the sculpture but Epstein deflected the criticism by ascending the building one night and reducing the length of the offending appendage by 1½ inches (3.8 cm).

[Captain Crunch]

For roof stuff, I still quite like the mad spaghetti on Goldsmiths, I think it's won awards for best use of shiny spaghetti on a new build:



For animals I raise you the Newcastle Vampire Rabbit (or is it a hare?)



And what about cutlery?  There's a big spoon near Cramlington, there must be a big fork to go with it somewhere. 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

This little beauty graces my town centre.

[Mr Banlon]

A massive 'gold disc'

Quote :
A modern disc-shaped canopy, which will be a recreational area in the town centre for the community, recalls the golden days in the 1960s and 70s when a wealth of iconic albums were mastered, pressed, packed and dispatched from the former EMI factory, including music from Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Queen.

[dissolute ocelot]

Stewart Lee's film King Rocker is all very interesting about The Nightingales and that, but the key part is the history of the King Kong statue which fled from Birmingham to Ingliston Market next to Edinburgh Airport (where it was owned by a company called Spook Erection Ltd), and apparently onward.

[studpuppet]

I'm in your area, Studpuppet. I always wondered why locally there were so many Moore statues around here - I just assumed the local statue supermarket had had a BOGOF offer one week and the local council had gone mental and snapped them all up. The fact that he was based around here makes a bit more sense. Thanks for the knowledge!

It's difficult to say whether it was because he was locally based or not. A lot of County Councils and Local Education Authorities put money aside to spend on publicly 'available' art as cultural nourishment for the masses, hence Harlow New Town buying up large sculptures at a dizzying pace.

I went to a small Barbara Hepworth exhibition in St. Albans Town Hall not long ago - she was a real favourite with the Hertfordshire LEA, and they budgeted 5% of their spend on new schools for art installations. She has some amazing forms:

Eocene (was at St. Albans Girls School):



Vertical Forms (they chipped this off the wall of the University Of Hertfordshire[nb]Previously Hatfield Technical College[/nb] to get it in the exhibition):



Turning Forms was another Festival Of Britain work that ended up at a Hertfordshire school (my nephew's as it happens, bet he didn't even realise). Originally it was near the end of Waterloo Bridge, motorised to turn full circle every two minutes. Now it's decoration for the staff car park:



And remember Contrapuntal Forms from the housing estate in Harlow? Here it is in it's original position at the Festival Of Britain (Skylon in the background), plus a picture of her chipping away at it at St. Ives in 1950:

[studpuppet]

Believe it or not I actually meant to post about Henry Moore before I went off at a tangent! It's well worth going to see the Henry Moore Foundation at Perry Green[nb]Just down the road from Little Hadham, where Fairport Convention had their house: "It was an old pub, The Angel in Little Hadham in Hertfordshire, where the band could rehearse and live. There were about 18 of us in there in the end, with one kitchen and one toilet. The kitchen was occupied 24 hours a day, as was the toilet." [/nb] where his studios are preserved and some of his major large works are displayed in the surrounding gardens and fields.

[Captain Crunch]

I'd love to see the Henry Moore stuff, will put it on the wishlist thanks.

Leeds University do a route, I did the guided tour there but you can just follow it with the handy pdf guide.

Canary Wharf is well worth seeing too; there used to be printed map guides at the shopping centre, I'm not sure if they still do that but there's a guide online.  It's a nice walk whether you follow the art or not. 

[The Lurker]

We have Andy Capp over on the Hartlepool Headland. Kelsey Grammer is a big fan of it too which I feel needs no explanation.

[idunnosomename]

possibly not best to have the background of your statue a bunch of plastic windows and some cunt's plastic conservatory.

i have been out to Hartlepool briefly though and I suspect that probably is one of the better bits

[Butchers Blind]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/09/statues-of-mick-jagger-and-keith-richards-unveiled-in-home-town-of-dartford

[idunnosomename]

Aieee

[FredNurke]

Those aren't going to last long on One Bell Corner, I suspect.

[studpuppet]

Had to go back through three pages of (mostly my own it seems) posts, to make sure no one had posted this classic.

[Neomod]

As a nipper I grew fond of the Spirit of Brighton sculpture in Churchill Square.



Usually viewed standing next my mum post BHS fish and chip lunch whilst she smoked a cig.