Located in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, USA, the horrible Boll Weevil Monument erected in 1919 to show their appreciation to an insect, the boll weevil, for its profound influence on the area’s agriculture and economy. Hailing the beetle as a “herald of prosperity”, it stands as the world’s only monument built to honor an agricultural pest. (Link)
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This statue located in Burkina Faso, really takes the cake for ugly. (Link)
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Is this a Denim Fetish Superman propositioning Acid Mrs. Butterworth? Nope. Is the fiesta dancers (by Luis Jimenez) at the University of New Mexico. (Link)
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Meet “El Mesteño”, an eight-meter rearing monstrosity that welcomes visitors to Denver International Airport with its glowing eyes and frightening anatomical realism. (Link | Via)
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This is supposed to be a statue of Christopher Columbus. It’s located in Seattle, near the aquarium. (Link)
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Placed in front of the main terminal of Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in NC, USA, this monumental bronze statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (the namesake of the city) was created by Raymond Kaskey. (Link)
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The city of San Jose spent $500,000 on a sculpture of Quetzalcoatl (pronounced Ketz-ul-KWAT-il), an ancient Meso-American god/figure of creativity and fertility dating back to pre-Aztec times, in order to honor the city’s Hispanic culture and heritage. However, it seems the coiled snake-like sculpture resembles more a gigantic dog turd. (Link)
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Sheep statue in Canberra, Australia. (Link)
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Peter the Great Statue in Moscow, Russia. It was built by Zurab Tsereteli in 1997 upon the order of the Moscow government on the elongated island formed between the Moscow River and the Obvodny canal. (Link)
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Located at the Clarendon Hotel, in London. (Link)
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The Burnside Fountain, affectionately called “Turtle Boy”, is actually a statue of a boy riding a hawksbill sea turtle created by sculptor Charles Y. Harvey. The statue stands on a pedestal of pink granite created by architect Henry Bacon, who later designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The Fountain, while originally placed in Central Square, Worcester, Massachusetts, it is now located on Worcester Common. (Link)
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Fat woman, only one of the ugly statues in Constance, Germany, by Peter Lenk.
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Naked Man Attacking Babies.
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Endearing himself to commuters on I-65 south of Nashville, Kershaw is best known for erecting a nightmarish statue of former Confederate general and KKK Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest on a private swath of land along the interstate. I made passing reference to the Forrest statue in an early blog entry about Civil War-related roadside attractions. The always entertaining website Roadside America calls the statue “ugly,” and “like a cartoon statue.” But the best critique I’ve come across was by one Patrick R. in this Yelp.com entry, May 5, 2008:
“The Nathan Bedford Forrest Memorial, which is beside I-65 South in Brentwood, is probably Nashville’s most appalling landmark. And I’m not only saying that because of the historical and racial implications—it’s also aesthetically atrocious. . .” Forrest “is depicted in this statue as a ghastly, screaming dwarf. The horse on which Forrest rides makes the general look like a nine-year-old with a radically contorted face wearing a false beard and a skirt.”