People Walk Past Them Every Day (12 Photos)

November 3, 2026

By Vidar

Twelve everyday objects in the wrong place

Phone boxes falling like dominoes, a car on human legs, a chair as tall as a house. Each one stands where people walk past it every day.

More: Strange Finds (9 Photos vol. 2)

🪟 “Window with Ladder – Too Late for Help” — By Leandro Erlich in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 🇺🇸

A ladder rises from an open lawn toward one window and a small piece of brick wall, with the rest of the building missing. The 2008 work now stands in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.

💡 Support Fact: The New Orleans Museum of Art says an underground steel structure supports the fiberglass, aluminum and brick assembly.

📷 Archive photo: Street Art Utopia (original photographer not listed)

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🔫 “Non-Violence” — By Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd in Malmö, Sweden 🇸🇪

A giant revolver with its barrel tied in a knot stands near Malmö Central Station. Reuterswärd made it after John Lennon, whom he knew, was shot in 1980.

💡 Copy Fact: There are more than 30 copies around the world. One of the three original bronze casts stands outside the United Nations headquarters in New York.

📷 Photo: Maria Eklind / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

☎️ “Out of Order” — By David Mach in Kingston upon Thames, England 🇬🇧

Twelve old red phone boxes tip over one after another on Old London Road, like dominoes that never finish falling. David Mach set them up in 1989.

💡 Repair Fact: The boxes were restored in 2019 for the work’s 30th birthday.

📷 Photo (also in cover): Loco Steve / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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📎 “Skin 2” — By Mehmet Ali Uysal, Originally in Parc Hauster, Chaudfontaine, Belgium 🇧🇪

Originally installed in Parc Hauster in 2010, a giant clothespin appeared to grip the lawn itself. Mehmet Ali Uysal made the sculpture at roughly 23 by 26 feet, turning the ground into something that looked soft enough to pinch.

💡 Scale Fact: Pi Artworks lists Skin 2 at 700 × 800 centimeters.

📷 Archive photo: Street Art Utopia (original photographer not listed)

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🦵 “Quo Vadis” — By David Černý in Prague, Czech Republic 🇨🇿

A Trabant on human legs walks across the garden of the German Embassy in Malá Strana. In 1989, up to 4,000 East Germans camped here until they could leave for the West, and many left their cars behind. Černý made it in 1990; this bronze cast has stood here since 2001.

💡 Fence Fact: In 2007 the embassy moved the car about 50 feet forward because tourists wrote in asking to see it. It can now be seen through the fence.

📷 Photo: Wegmann / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🏸 “Shuttlecocks” — By Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in Kansas City, Missouri, USA 🇺🇸

Four enormous badminton shuttlecocks lie across the lawns of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Installed in 1994, they make the museum building look like the net in a game played by giants.

💡 Museum Fact: The Nelson-Atkins records that the sculptures were controversial when installed. They later became an icon of both the museum and Kansas City.

📷 Archive photo: Street Art Utopia (original photographer not listed)

🔗 See the museum’s record for Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s work

✏️ “Photo Opportunity” — By WOSKerski on Penge High Street, London, UK 🇬🇧

Two building-size yellow pencils break through a grayscale landscape on Penge High Street. WOSKerski painted the mural so people on the sidewalk can step into the scene and become part of it.

💡 Project Fact: London Calling Blog documents the mural as part of SprayExhibition20, a project that has brought hundreds of artworks to the SE20 area.

📷 Archive photo: Street Art Utopia (original photographer not listed)

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

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🍾 “Bottle of Notes” — By Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in Middlesbrough, England 🇬🇧

This message in a bottle in Centre Square is made of the message itself. The 1993 steel sculpture, about 30 feet tall, is built from handwritten words.

💡 Journal Fact: The outer words are Captain Cook’s journal entry from June 3, 1769, about watching Venus cross the sun. The blue inner text is a line by van Bruggen about seagulls.

📷 Photo: Robert Eva / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

🧳 “A Case History” — By John King in Liverpool, England 🇬🇧

A pile of concrete suitcases sits on the sidewalk of Hope Street, as if travelers just walked off and left them. People use them as a bench.

💡 Label Fact: Many of the cases are labeled with a person or place linked to the street, from Charles Dickens to John Lennon. John King made it in 1998.

📷 Photo: OTFW, Berlin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

🪑 “Broken Chair” — By Daniel Berset in Geneva, Switzerland 🇨🇭

A wooden chair about 39 feet tall stands across from the Palace of Nations in Geneva. One leg is snapped off halfway down, yet the chair never falls.

💡 Landmine Fact: Handicap International put it up in 1997 to push countries to ban land mines. It was meant to stay three months.

📷 Photo (also in cover): Ank Kumar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

🚗 “Ruhender Verkehr” — By Wolf Vostell in Cologne, Germany 🇩🇪

A car-shaped block of concrete sits on the median of the Hohenzollernring. In 1969 Wolf Vostell poured concrete over his own Opel Kapitän in a parking space and called it “Stationary Traffic.”

💡 Engine Fact: Vostell encased the car with the engine and radio still running. It was cast in a parking space on Domstraße and has stood on the Hohenzollernring since 1989.

📷 Photo: VollwertBIT / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

🧊 “L’Estel Ferit” — By Rebecca Horn in Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

Four rusty metal cubes stand stacked crooked on Sant Miquel beach in Barceloneta, about 33 feet tall. They look like a tiny apartment block dropped on the sand.

💡 Beach Fact: Rebecca Horn made it in 1992, the year of the Barcelona Olympics. It honors the restaurants and bathhouses that once lined the beach.

📷 Photo: subherwal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)