Cover Your Eyes, Children! Here Comes Lange Wapper

If you happen to pass by the historic medieval fortress of Het Steen in Antwerp, Belgium the chances are very likely you will come across a statue.  A real double-take statue. Or even a triple-take statue.  However many times you eyes are drawn to it, this is one statue that demands your attention. Created in 1963 by Belgium sculptor Alber Poets, the sculpture represents a legendary figure in Flemish folklore, the crafty and mischievous giant called Long Whopper.  Sorry, Lange Wapper.  Dubious translations aside, he is certainly a big boy.

Secretive Supersize Squirrel on Steroids

The Indian Giant Squirrel is something else - it is far larger than the European and North American squirrels for a start - it makes them look like Oompa-Loompas for a start! However, if you are averse to squirrels you need not worry too much - they live in India and so they are unlikely to spring at you from the trees any time soon (plus they are vegetarians anyway!).

Nevertheless, their size is quite remarkable - one can only wonder how the trees take their weight as they leap up to twenty meters between the branches. You can get the low down on these amazing beasts over at our sibling site, The Ark In Space.

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Genghis Khan Rides Again: Huge Statue of Emperor Dominates the Mongolian Steppe

Just over thirty miles east of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator the old Emperor, Genghis Khan, rides again.  Sat atop his horse, surveying his dominion (which was after his death to become the largest contiguous empire in history) a huge 131 feet statue of Genghis Khan dominates the steppes of Mongolia.

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The sculpture, designed by D. Erdenebileg and architect J. Enkhjargal stands at the banks of the Tuul River.  It is here that the great emperor was said to have found a golden whip at the age of fifteen – though there is no exact evidence to support this.  It was, however, this whip that is said to have inspired the young Temujin (his birth name) to go on to conquer much of the known world.

Hofman’s Hippopo Hits the Thames

There is usually something new to see in London every day but this week there was a new addition on the River Thames unusual even by the standards of the English capital.  There was no need, either, to be particularly eagle-eyed to spot this visitor to one of the world’s most well-known waterways.   While Battersea’s famous power station is usually associated with flying pigs, thanks to the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 Animals album, this week it was a 21 meter long floating hippo which caught the attention of those taking a stroll down the river.

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Belfast Unveils Wish: AKA The Face from Space

An incredible eleven acre land art installation has been unveiled in Belfast, Northern Ireland.   The piece shows the face of a little girl, anonymous said to be from the city, smiling rather enigmatically. Although the work, by Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada is formally entitled Wish, locals have already given it a new name: The Face from Space.

Wish has been months in the planning and is part of the Belfast Festival which started on 17 October and lasts for ten days.  This world class piece of land art is made up of 30,000 pegs.  Add to this 2,000 tonnes of soil and an equal amount of sand and you begin to realize the titanic scale of this project.  All told, it covers eleven acres of Belfast’s old docklands. Although the International Space Station is yet to take any pictures of Wish, this Face from Space is a thrilling sight for visitors to the city flying in and out of George Best Belfast City Airport.

Mr Darcy Emerges from a Lake: Again

It wasn’t quite how Jane Austen had originally intended. In fact she never wrote the passage at all.  Yet a certain scene from the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice caused so many hearts to flutter that it has gone down as one of the fondest remembered moments of British TV of all time. And now it’s happening again, albeit in London’s Hyde Park and courtesy of a trio of artists.

The scene (above) which raised the blood pressure of (at least half of) a nation saw an amorously frustrated Mr Darcy take a dip in the lake of his country pile, Pemberley.  His ardour somewhat cooled, he stalks to his house in sodden but still smouldering condition. He then bumps in to the object of his thwarted desires, Elizabeth Bennett and Georgian embarrassment ensues.  What was intended to be a rather comedic scene lit a million candles: it is said that Colin Firth became a movie star on the basis of his wet linen shirt and breeches.

The Giant Slugs of Angers

Angers is a beautiful and historic city 300km south west of Paris. Its universities and museums help to offer its citizens a rich cultural life which spans many centuries but remains vibrantly contemporary. Yet even the cultivated Angevins may not have been prepared for an invasion of giant slugs, the latest work by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

Hofman is renowned for his giant installations – we featured his big yellow rabbit in the Swedish town of Örebro last year. For Angers' recent Hanging Hearts Festival, Hofman created a pair of giant, dazzlingly multi-colored slugs.

Q Confucius

This giant head and shoulders, representing the famous thinker and social philosopher of the 5th century BC is part of a new exhibition at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. Created by world renowned artist Zhang Huan, Q Confucius is part of a series of the artist’s thoughts on art and society.

The enormous sculpture has been planned by the artist and museum for over two years.  It is Huan’s response to a series of question he posed himself, such as China’s place in the modern world and the responsibilities with its emergence as a global superpower, economically, socially, militarily and scientifically. Is there room for a sense of Chinese spirituality in the twenty first century?

The museum is now in its second year and the RAM as it is known has previously hosted three major exhibitions with Q Confucius and its associated works making the fourth.  Made especially for the museum, Q Confucius almost reaches the ceiling of the spacious room in which it is housed.

It was created from carbon fiber and acrylic over a steel frame and is hyper realistic to say the very least.  You can see each and every detail of Confucius’ face and upper body down to the pores and wrinkles of age. Huan lives in both Shanghai and New York and it is expected that the latter city will be the next port of call for this immense sculpture – sometime in 2013.

Image Credit Flickr User Around the world in unknown days

All other images courtesy of Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai

Crouching Tiger and Turtle – The Roller Coaster Walkway

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It has taken eight weeks of intensive assembly work but the newest feature of the German landscape has been unveiled today. The city of Duisburg is now home to Crouching Tiger and Turtle, which could easily be described as a roller coaster without a roller coaster!

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It stands about eleven meters in height and is part of the city’s Capital of Culture project. Crouching Tiger and Turtle, Magic Mountain (to give it its full name) is a work by sculptors Ulrich Genth and Heike Mutter. Visitors are encouraged to follow the twists and turns of the roller coaster and enjoy the surrounding Ruhr landscape from slightly different perspectives than usual!

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Image Credit Flickr User Dirk65

The giant sculpture, situated in the Heinrich Hildebrand-heights is made from steel and zinc which establishes a link between itself and the park in which it is situated which once produced zinc before it was turned in to a recreational space. The city of Duisburg is also home to Krupp Mannesmann, a major steel manufacturing company which gives the massive piece of artwork another local connection.

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Image Credit Flickr User Eichental

Yet why the name? According to one of the sculptors, Heike Mutter, the roller coaster represents acceleration and the high speed of a tiger but the sightseer has to investigate it step by step like a turtle.

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Image Credit Flickr User Eichental

You may well be wondering about the fantastic gymnastic capabilities of the locals of Duisburg. Although from a distance it looks as if the whole sculpture is accessible to pedestrians the loops cannot be walked upon. Health and safety regulations may disappoint some here but one can only imagine the challenging temptation this may present to some of the more athletic young people of the city!

Image Credit Flickr User Dirk65

Image Credit Flickr User Dirk65

Apart from being about the only sculpture that we know of about which under tens will become excited, T&T also offers adults an opportunity to ponder. One of the first questions, of course, will be was it worth it? At 1.7m euros (2.3m USD) it did not come cheap.  Yet something which offers such immense fun while also being a serious example of landscape art – could you even ask the question?

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Banksy Gives Occupy London Demonstrators a Giant Monopoly Board

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You might say that protesting as a full time occupation might be exciting. Yet there is a limit to how much protesting you can actually do in a day – and time out must at some point be called. There isn’t anything quite like a board game to while away the hours between protests, so the demonstrators outside of St Paul’s Cathedral in London have been gifted a giant Monopoly board.

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

It is thought that the enormous board has been created by the infamous street artist, Banksy. It certainly bears many of the hallmarks of his works. The enormous depiction of the renowned board has Mr Money Bags, begging with his top hat. There are also the usual top hat and sports car to represent the bankers.

Image Credit Flickr USer Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Instead of street names the board includes the names of places in cities where other protests are taking place. However, this is where my one question comes up – the street names are rather amateurishly done. Either the protestors have changed the names to please themselves or Banksy has let his quality of work slip a little!

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

The pièce de résistance for me, however, is the red plastic house which has the tag ‘tox’ upon it – a reference to the toxic mortgage lending which helped to trigger the crisis in which we find ourselves. Not that it has stopped the director’s of Britain’s largest companies pocketing an average 49% pay rise over the last year. No wonder they have been labeled ‘elite greedy pigs’ by the unions.Or, this may actually be in reference to a tagger by the name of Tox who was convicted of criminal damage in London earlier this year and may currently be in prison. Banksy has previously tagged the artist's name elsewhere:

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The Wanderings of the WEEE Man

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People around the United Kingdom have been in for a big surprise. A seven meter three tonne metal man has been wandering in their midst. Who (or what) is he and why is he here? Is the Earth about to stand still? Hardly, but like Klaatu he brings a message to which we should really listen!

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Image Credit Flickr User 1hr photo

Asking people to think about waste is sometimes difficult – you might even say it can be a waste of time. People do not like to be preached at. So how on earth do you make a European Union Directive interesting enough to grab people’s attention? Through art? Well, it’s worth a shot! A mysterious seven meter creature was born.

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So here is the result – WEEE man! On average a citizen of the United Kingdom will produce 3.3 tonnes of waste in their lifetime. At the same time that sounds like an enormous amount but, considering our lifestyles in the West it does seem rather small at the same time. This is only, in reality, a fraction of the waste that one person creates. In fact, it only represents the electrical waste that will be produced by an individual in their lifetime. The WEEE man weighs in at this exact weight – and as such offers a direct insight in to the enormity of the problem.

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What is he made of? Firstly, large household appliances, such as washing machines and television sets make up a large part of his structure. Then there are smaller objects, such as toaster, irons, and other electrical tools. There is lighting equipment and automatic dispensers, IT and telecoms equipment and toys and leisure items, all making up this latter-day Frankenstein’s monster of Brobdingnagian proportions. This guy is big! Waste is no longer out of sight, out of mind. The hope is that his birth will make people think about their behavior when it comes to disposing of the electrical equipment they no longer want.

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People still do not consider recycling sufficiently. To draw attention to this the British Royal Society of Arts started to think – and think big. Hugh Knowles Mark Fremantle, both Fellows of the RSA developed the idea in tandem with Giraffe Innovation. The result was WEEE man – seven meters tall and, yes, over three tones in weight. He is a scary looking guy – hardly the ‘wee’ man you might imagine if you were told you were to be introduced to him at the bar after work! Wee, of course, is Scottish slang for someone of diminutive stature – and this wonderful play on words is integral to the impact of this work of art.

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Image Credit Flickr User Rich Jacques

At the risk of sounding like a cosmetic ad, here’s the science (or at least the boring bit – the reason why WEEE man was created in the first instance. WEEE actually stands for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) which became European Law way back in 2003. Its aim was to set targets for the collection, recovery and (mais bien sur!) the recycling of any and all types of electrical equipment.

Image Credit Flickr User Stuart Herbert

The law recognizes that it is not the sole responsibility of the buyer to dispose of their electrical equipment once it has become redundant. Rather it is the equal responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that their customers can return their WEEE with ease – and for nothing. Additionally, the organizations mist use the collected materials in a way that is ecologically friendly – which means no more selling off the used goods to poorer nations to bury a few meters below the ground and ruin the water table for the local inhabitants.

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So, the WEEE man was considered a good way to draw attention to this. After all, out of all the European Union Member States only little Cyprus managed to meet the deadline to place this Directive in to their own national law. The UK (and its usual tagalong play mate Malta) were the only two member states not to transpose a framework of the regulations at the very least in to their national law. Step forward the Royal Society of Arts with a reminder of the governmental responsibilities – and we are not talking a post-it note on the PC monitor here, either!

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Once the point had been made, at the South Bank in the heart of London, WEEE man now finds a home at the marvelous Eden Project in Cornwall. There he remains (but will be on tour soon), a colossal reminder of the waste that we produce and a nudge to our consciences that we must do something about it. How he has managed to encourage discussion around our throw-away consumer society could never properly be quantified. However, something this big gets noticed and hopefully this WEEE man has made people think about their choices when it comes to the disposal and recycling of our waste.

Image Credit Flickr User Gaellery