The Statues That Nearly Belonged

These images record the precise moment a sculpture stops looking like a prop and starts feeling like it belongs.

Still behind the glass

The first figure remains indoors, separated by a lobby window from the building and garden it appears to watch [1]. The stone horse in Kildare is more formally presented: a sign beside it turns the surrounding park into part setting, part exhibit [2].

[1]

Antalya, Belek, a statue inside a lobby window looking out onto a building and garden

[2]

Kildare, a stone horse statue and an informational sign in a park setting

Then the scenery fights back

Sometimes you pass by sometimes it strikes some of them bring you to childhood some hunt you down

The green character with a surfboard breaks that formality, its colour and pose competing with the resort lawn [3]. In Greenhills, the life-sized animal is not placed on the ground at all. Hanging in a tree, it makes the branches part of the surprise [4].

[3]

Antalya, Belek, a statue of a green character holding a surfboard on a grassy resort lawn

[4]

Dublin, Greenhills, a life-sized animal sculpture hanging in a tree

Almost part of the pond

The two herons come closest to disappearing into their surroundings. Standing on a rock amid pond water and trees, they occupy the kind of scene in which real birds might go unnoticed [5].

[5]

Dublin, Ratoath, two heron statues on a rock in a pond surrounded by trees

By the final photo, the sculpture is no longer looking out at the setting or interrupting it. The two herons are standing inside it.

What if you could talk to them?