From Epic to Ridiculous (9 Photos)

By Vidar
Split image showing the giant rice-straw elephant from the 2018 Wara Art Festival in Niigata, Japan, and Vanyu Krastevโ€™s googly-eyed drainpipe in Bulgaria.

Some art makes you feel tiny. Other art turns an detail into a joke.

A fence shadow becomes a roller-coaster track, while an eagle spreads its wings across a tunnel ceiling.

These 9 artworks range from giant sculptures to a drainpipe with two plastic eyes.

More: When Art Makes the Impossible Look Real


Anamorphic pavement painting by Juandres Vera and Tardor in Riola, Spain, showing a woman holding a wooden bucket in a rocky blue stream, with Tardor kneeling beside the artwork.

๐Ÿ’ง The Water Carrier โ€” By Juandres Vera and Tardor in Riola, Spain ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ

From the intended viewpoint, the paving appears to open into a rocky stream, with a woman holding a wooden bucket in the water. Juandres Vera and Tardor created the painting as part of a 2025 project bringing images of nature into Riolaโ€™s public spaces, around Plaรงa Mestre Sant Francesc and Carrer Sant Cristรฒfol. Painted shadows and distorted perspective give the flat tiles their apparent depth.

More: A Hidden Spring Beneath the Street in Riola, Spain

๐Ÿ”— Follow Juandres Vera and Tardor on Instagram


Jon Foreman crouching beside Clustermoon, a large crescent of carefully arranged colored stones at Freshwater West in Wales.

๐ŸŒ™ โ€œClustermoonโ€ โ€” By Jon Foreman at Freshwater West, Wales ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง

A crescent of carefully arranged stones curves across the sand at Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire, with Jon Foreman crouching beside it for scale. Small white stones trace the inner edge, while blues give way to purples and yellows farther out. In his account of making Clustermoon, Foreman dates the work to May 5, 2025, says it took two days, and confirms that the arrangement is handmade.

๐Ÿ’ก Nerd Fact: In a 2020 interview, Foreman said he rarely draws out a design in full before beginning. He also described staying to watch the tide erase his work and trying to photograph the moment the water reaches it.

More: Art in Nature With Stones and Leaves by Jon Foreman

๐Ÿ”— Follow Jon Foreman on Instagram


Dog mural by WOSKerski with huge eyes, uneven ears and a lolling tongue, painted in front of a yellow circle on a brick wall in Penge, London.

๐Ÿถ Dog โ€” By WOSKerski in Penge, London, UK ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง

Two enormous eyes, a lolling tongue and uneven ears fill the brick wall. A bright yellow circle sits behind the head. WOSKerski painted this dog in Penge, southeast London.

More: 9 Times WOSKerski Made UK Walls Feel Like Glitches in Reality

๐Ÿ”— Follow WOSKerski on Instagram


A group posing beside the giant rice-straw elephant made for the 2018 Wara Art Festival at Uwasekigata Park in Niigata, Japan.

๐Ÿ˜ Giant Straw Elephant โ€” By Musashino Art University Students and Local Residents in Niigata, Japan ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต

An elephant towers over the group gathered at its feet, with rice straw forming its broad ears, tusks and textured hide. The festivalโ€™s official gallery identifies it as a 2018 work at Uwasekigata Park in Niigata. Since 2008, the Wara Art Festival has brought together Musashino Art University students and local residents. Its construction process combines student designs, frames built by local craftspeople, and straw supplied and woven by farmers.

๐Ÿ’ก Nerd Fact: Rice straw once provided farmers with winter income: when snow prevented fieldwork, they made sandals, decorations and other household goods from it. According to Niigataโ€™s official account, the straw-art project began in 2006 to find a new use for this agricultural by-product as traditional uses declined.

More: Wara Art Festival in Niigata, Japan

๐Ÿ”— Follow the Wara Art Festival on Facebook


Anamorphic mural by Costwo in Zurich, Switzerland, showing a break-dancing grandfather appearing to emerge from a painted corner, with both shoe soles facing the viewer and one hand on the floor.

๐Ÿ•บ Go Grandpa Go Grandpa! โ€” By Costwo in Zurich, Switzerland ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ

An older man appears to break-dance out of a painted corner, with both soles pushed toward the camera and one hand planted on the floor. Costwo stretches the shoes, arm and shadow across adjoining surfaces so the pose lines up from one viewpoint. Global Street Art documents the work in Zurich.

๐Ÿ’ก Nerd Fact: DJ Kool Herc extended instrumental breaks by switching between two copies of the same record, turning passages lasting seconds into several minutes for dancers. As documented in Christieโ€™s account of his early parties, he called these dancers โ€œbreak boys,โ€ shortened to โ€œb-boys.โ€

More: Go Grandpa Go Grandpa!

๐Ÿ”— Follow Costwo on Instagram


A cast human ear embedded in a brick wall in Michael Beitzโ€™s Ear Brick intervention in Brooklyn, New York.

๐Ÿ‘‚ โ€œEar Brickโ€ โ€” By Michael Beitz in Brooklyn, New York, USA ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

A single brick has a human ear, small enough to miss. Saatchi Gallery identifies Ear Brick as Michael Beitzโ€™s 2001 intervention in Brooklyn. In his explanation of the Brick Pieces, quoted by Boing Boing, Beitz describes replacing missing bricks with handmade ones incorporating casts of his own body parts. The small additions invite people to consider their bodies as part of the cityโ€™s structure.

More: Made You Smile (10 Photos)

๐Ÿ”— Follow Michael Beitz on Instagram


SPAIKโ€™s Flying Eagle mural spreading patterned blue wings across the curved ceiling of a road tunnel in Ibiza, Spain.

๐Ÿฆ… โ€œFlying Eagleโ€ โ€” By SPAIK in Ibiza, Spain ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ

SPAIK painted a patterned eagle across the curved ceiling of a concrete road tunnel, its wings following the arch above passing traffic. Brooklyn Street Art documented the finished mural and the artist at work, identifying it as Flying Eagle, painted for BLOOP Festival in Ibiza in July 2016. It was created for the festivalโ€™s โ€œNo Fearโ€ theme.

More: Underpasses That Became Secret Art Worlds

๐Ÿ”— Follow SPAIK on Instagram


Three-panel before-and-after view of Tom Bob turning a curved fence shadow into a roller coaster full of cheering passengers in Long Beach, California.

๐ŸŽข Roller Coaster Shadow โ€” By Tom Bob in Long Beach, California, USA ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

At first, it is just the curved shadow of a fence. Tom Bob adds a black roller-coaster train and passengers with their hands in the air, and the shadow becomes the track. His post of the work places it in Long Beach, California.

More: Street Art by Tom Bob

๐Ÿ”— Follow Tom Bob on Instagram


Two googly eyes attached above a gaping hole in a corroded drainpipe make it resemble a shocked face in Vanyu Krastevโ€™s Bulgarian street intervention.

๐Ÿ˜ฑ Shocked Drainpipe โ€” By Vanyu Krastev in Bulgaria ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ

A hole in the corroded pipe forms an open mouth beneath two plastic eyes. In a 2017 interview with Deadline News, Vanyu Krastev explained that he began after discovering eyebombing.com and created Eyebombing Bulgaria to spread the idea.

More: Googly-Eye Street Art by Vanyu Krastev

๐Ÿ”— Follow Vanyu Krastev on Instagram

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Discussion 2 comments

  1. These are SO amazingly INCREDIBLE!!! ๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿˆโ€โฌ›๐Ÿ’™
    The talent these artists have is absolutely mind-blowing! We need way more of this all over the worldโ€” to bring beauty to drab cityscapes, and just anywhere!
    Itโ€™s sad for us inhabitants of the US at this terrible time, to not be able to see things as awesome as this on the regular! โ˜น๏ธ
    Maybe someday!
    Love to all!!! ๐Ÿ’™๐Ÿˆโ€โฌ›๐Ÿ’™

    Reply

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