When Sculptures Come Alive (8 Photos vol. 4)

Sculptures with lives of their own

A lifted hoof, a climbing ghost, a tightrope pose and one gloriously relaxed gorilla: these eight sculptures seem to be caught in the middle of doing something.

More: When Sculptures Come Alive (9 Photos vol. 2)

---

🐗 “Old Sow Between the Trees” — By Hannelie Coetzee at Wanås Konst, Sweden 🇸🇪

A boar’s face appears between the trunks, with the surrounding woodland completing the body. It was made in 2015 from wood, metal, oil and tar. Its Afrikaans title is Ou sog tussen bome; the wild boar vanished from Sweden for several hundred years before returning, and its comeback still stirs debate. The sculpture is part of the collection at Wanås Konst near Knislinge.

Source: Wanås Konst

---

👻 “The Black Ghost” — By Svajūnas Jurkus and Sergejus Plotnikovas in Klaipėda, Lithuania 🇱🇹

A hooded bronze figure grips the dock and lifts a lantern above the water, halfway through climbing into the city. It stands by the castle marina at Žvejų g. 22, near the swing bridge. As Atlas Obscura recounts the story, a castle guard met the hooded figure in 1595 and was warned that the city would run short of grain and timber.

Source: Klaipėda Region Guide

---

🦍 “King Kong Balls” — By Denis Defrancesco, photographed in Prague, Czechia 🇨🇿

The enormous blue gorilla reclines in the street with the confidence of someone who owns the whole block. Defrancesco cast it in bronze in 2019, with a blue patina and polished details; it is just over five meters long and weighs 2,780 kilograms. After its time in Prague, the sculpture was moved to Beroun.

Source: Denis Defrancesco

---

🦫 “Half Baby Beaver” — By Bordalo II in Bernex, Switzerland 🇨🇭

A huge eye, paw and muzzle lean around the corner as if the animal has just noticed someone below. Bordalo II built the creature from discarded materials, but its watchful pose gives it the strongest personality.

Source: Street Art Utopia archive

---

🐎 “The Vision of Constantine” — By Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Vatican City 🇻🇦

The horse recoils while Constantine looks upward at his vision. Bernini was commissioned in 1654, and the finished work was installed at the foot of the Scala Regia in 1670. The figure is carved from a single block of marble and set against painted stucco drapery; with its base, the monument stands 6.4 meters high, according to the Patrons of the Vatican Museums.

💡 History Fact: The statue was first planned as a freestanding work inside St. Peter’s Basilica; only in the 1660s was it moved into the Scala Regia project, arriving there on January 12, 1669, after a ten-day transport. Early critics complained that the cross in Constantine’s vision was invisible and that the emperor looked too young, according to Wikipedia.

Source: St. Peter’s Basilica

---

🤸 “Equilibrium” — By Alexander Lidagovsky in Kyiv, Ukraine 🇺🇦

The bronze-and-steel gymnast balances high above the street, and the figure can sway slightly with the wind. The sculpture was unveiled in 2013 at Bolsunovska Street 2 in Kyiv’s Pechersk district.

Source: Go2Kiev

---

🪽 “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa” — By Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Rome, Italy 🇮🇹

An angel leans forward with an arrow while Teresa seems to sink backward into a storm of carved fabric. Bernini made the marble-and-gilded-bronze group between 1647 and 1652; the hidden light and falling golden rays turn the chapel into a stage. The work fills the Cornaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, where a seven-month restoration of the entire chapel was completed in 2021.

💡 History Fact: Cardinal Federico Cornaro commissioned the group for his own burial chapel, and Bernini lined the side walls with relief portraits of Cornaro men seated in theater-style boxes, as if watching the scene. The arrow follows Teresa’s autobiography, where she describes an angel piercing her heart with “a long spear of gold” tipped with fire, according to Wikipedia.

Source: Turismo Roma

---

🧸 The Teddy Bear of Gaol Ferry Bridge — By James Colomina in Bristol, UK 🇬🇧

A small red teddy bear hangs mid-swing beneath the bridge. Colomina installed it under Gaol Ferry Bridge in the early hours of September 25, 2024, saying the bear on its swing “evokes childhood and its lightness.” He has since placed other sculptures around Bristol, including at Cabot Circus and Queen Square, as Bristol24/7 reported.

💡 Artist Fact: Colomina’s red figures often carry a political edge. In 2023 he placed a red Vladimir Putin seated on a miniature tank in a sandbox at Parc Léopold in Brussels, near the European Parliament, ahead of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Paris Match Belgique reported.

Source: Bristol24/7