Article written by Valeria Lasso.
This week I’m coming to you with my top 10 list of strangest pieces of art.
I chose these based on my own impressions. I’m not saying this list is right but hopefully we’ll all agree that the pieces I’ve picked are rather strange.
10. Mike Ross. Big Rig Jig
The artist of this sculpture had actually spent quite a bit of time with truckers and lived in a place where he saw them often.
This sculpture is made out of two discarded tanker trucks and the fun part is that you can actually go into it an emerge at the very top to get a good look at your surroundings forty-two feet from the ground.
Ross said, “It’s just cool to see trucks in the air.” I haven’t seen many trucks in the air, but I still agree with him, it is cool to see them up in the air.
9. Henk Hofstra. Art Eggcident
The artist is basically showing us what it would look like if God threw giant eggs down at us. Each egg measures around 100 feet in diameter. This took place in a city north of Netherlands.
Imagine walking down the street and seeing giant eggs painted on the pavement. That would probably be confusing and yet, amusing. Maybe some people can interpret it as random art, or maybe someone alluding to global warming. However, we can probably all agree that whoever sees this on their walk to work or school will think “What the heck?”.
8. Ryan Alexiev. For the Love of God, Revisited
You read that right. It is cereal. Cheerios to be precise. They’re not just delicious, they are also great for making art pieces.
I have seen skulls made out of other materials such as diamonds, metal, rubber, even plastic but never had I ever seen a skull made out of Cheerios.
What Alexiev did was buy a skull off eBay and recreated it using cereal. Can’t get any more delicious than that.
7. Robert Rauschenberg. Monogram
This piece took more than four years to come together after the artist bought the goat at a local furniture shop. He cleaned its fur and painted its face and spent the rest of his time looking for a satisfactory way to turn it into a combine.
According to some commentators, this piece has satirical, religious and even sexual interpretations.
The artist put the goat through a tyre and that inspire the name because it reminded him of the interlocking letters of a monogram.
6. Ken Currie. Gallowgate Lard
There isn’t something specifically strange about the painting, at least without including the fact that it is quite creepy. I honestly think it is a really good piece. The strange part is that it is supposed to be a self-portrait. Currie is trying to show the struggle for survival and it makes the painting more reasonable. I can understand how the struggle to get by can make someone feel dead inside, I really do. But the fact that someone would paint this and think ‘this is me’ is sad and quite strange.
5. Maurice Bennett. Mona Lisa
Yes, that is the Mona Lisa. Yes, she is holding an ice cream. Yes, it is made of pieces of toast. Nope, I don’t know how he made toast look pink.
Maurice Bennett makes awesome pieces of art with pieces of toast. He builds amazing designs by toasting the bread according to the shade that he needs. He doesn’t toast them in the toaster. Nah, that’s too boring. He uses a blowtorch. Now that’s sure to get things hot.
4. Jana Sterbak. Vanitas: flesh dress for an albino anorexic
As you can see this is a dress made out of meat. To be exact, fifty pounds of meat. The work is meant to be a contrast between vanity and bodily decomposition. Every time that it is exhibited it must be sewn back together a new and obviously, with new meat, which is around 300$.
This piece created so much controversy when it started being exhibited. I think that many vegetarians probably were enraged by this, and the people suffering from anorexia or another eating disorder might have thought this crossed the line.
Honestly, I feel bad for the girl that had to put that. It’s not just heavy, it probably smells pretty bad too.
3. Christine A. Holtz. Adult Pacifier
That’s a pacifier sculpture. If that’s not weird enough for you, it is made out of cigarette butts. Holtz counted 30,946 butts as she pushed each one into a wire frame. I can feel myself getting cancer just from looking at this.
She says that building this was her way of concluding that smoking was a terrible habit and it is basically a pacifier for adults. Except that cigarettes can actually kill you when as sucking on a pacifier… Well, not so much.
2. Robert Mapplethorpe. Louise Bourgeois
This is a portrait of Louis Bourgeois and as you can see, she’s holding a sculpture she made. It’s a d*ck.
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a d*ck sculpture on its own, I can see the artistic side to that. Even an old lady posing for a photo in black and white is fine. But, there is just something about an old lady smirking at a camera while holding a dick under her arm that seems very strange to me.
1. Karl Persson. Lunch Monkey
I’m sorry but if you ask me, this is one of the most disturbing paintings I’ve ever seen in my life. What is that? That does not look like a monkey. It looks like it’s ready to eat just about anything, including a human. But it looks like it could be a human, a creepy baby with no eyes and an adult mouth. I’ve just lost all my appetite looking at this painting. Borderline strange to be honest.
Well, that was fun. Some of the pieces we looked at today were quite strange, but also kind of awesome. Others were weird and very, very disturbing.
I just hope that we can all archive in our heads these images in the ‘strangest things I’ve seen’ memory box and proceed with our days as if we haven’t been scarred by any of these. That’s what I’m going to try to do anyway.
What I am curious to know is what you think about these pieces and if you think I should’ve included other works or if you think any shouldn’t even be on this list. If you do, go right ahead and leave a comment telling me your opinion. I’d love to hear all your thoughts on this subject.
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