Nerds Republic

The latest sculptures by artist Kim Simonsson seem to shimmer with life, and the effect is startlingly eerie. His ceramic sculptures depict children, mainly girls, and forest animals — but instead of having a smooth, hard surface like many of his other pieces do, these are covered in a vibrant green flocking that makes them look as though they’re covered in moss.

Although many of the sculptures depict children and animals, their mossy look makes them seem ancient.

Kim Simonsson

Moss Girl

Some are even placed in outdoor settings, where they blend in with moss-covered stones like otherworldly apparitions.

Kim Simonsson

Moss Girl and River

There’s always a slightly menacing undercurrent in these works, regardless of how sweet the subject matter happens to be.

Kim Simonsson

Two-Headed Moss Bunny and Moss Girl

It’s bizarre that such a vibrant covering can look so unsettling. Things covered in moss are static and ancient. These little girls and bunnies are not. “Nothing that is alive stays static long enough to grow moss, but a ceramic figure is frozen in a situation,” Simonsson says.

Sometimes, the mossy creatures accompany other ceramic figures.

Kim Simonsson

Lisa and Louise and Moss Bear

The soft, nylon flocking that looks so much like moss lends these pieces, which are currently on display in New York, a softer, more organic feeling. “My sculptures are usually very sleek and smooth. Pieces [in] Moss People are rougher and more personal. You can see my handprint in them,” Simonsson told TL Magazine.

In terms of inspiration, Simonsson drew from the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen and the paintings of Edvard Munch, as well as from the Scandinavian folktales he grew up hearing.

Kim Simonsson

Resting Moss Woman

Kim Simonsson

Sleeping Moss Woman with Ghosts

This piece has a shiny metal accent.

Kim Simonsson

Moss Girl with Visor

(via My Modern Met, TL Magazine)

If you’re in the New York area, you can see Moss People in person at the Jason Jacques Gallery through October 28. You can also see more of Simonsson’s work on his website and Facebook.

Looming 35 feet over the Villa di Pratolino in Tuscany is an enormous sculpture called the Colosso dell’Appennino, or the Colossus of the Apennines. Made of brick and stone, the mountainous man was created in the 1580s by Flemish sculptor Jean Boulogne, also known as Giambologna in Italy.

Today, the park that houses the statue is called Villa Demidoff.

Getty Images

It sits just outside of Florence and is open to the public on weekends.

Giambolognna was a celebrated sculptor in his time, and he produced many famous works.

Citta Metropolitana di Firenze

In fact, he was considered so good that the Medici family didn’t let him leave the city for fear that other patrons would steal him away!

Citta Metropolitana di Firenze

The Colossus is impressive enough from the outside, but it’s hiding a pretty amazing secret on the inside.

Getty Images

It’s actually a building, as this small-scale model demonstrates.

Blogspot / Andreas Angelidakis

There are multiple rooms hidden inside the giant’s body.

Blogspot / Andreas Angelidakis

These steps lead to the secret rooms.

Blogspot / Andreas Angelidakis

While they might have served as party rooms, legend has it that the interior chambers were actually used to create special effects for viewers looking at the piece from the outside.

Blogspot / Andreas Angelidakis

From inside, people could make it look like water was flowing under the sculpture’s left hand, or like smoke was coming out of its nostrils.

Blogspot / Andreas Angelidakis

(via Discover Tuscany, Bored Panda, Wikipedia)

If you’re in Tuscany between April and October, be sure to check out this centuries-old work of art and its hidden secrets. This sculpture is one of a kind.

Paris’ Pere Lachaise cemetery is the final resting place of some very influential people, including Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison, as well as countless others. Like other cemeteries, it’s full of heartfelt memorials and classic grave markers.

There is, however, one exception to the traditional rule, and it’s one that’s been causing giggles for the past 140 or so years. It’s the grave of journalist Victor Noir, who died in a duel in 1870 and whose death had political repercussions throughout the country. And whoever created it made some very interesting stylistic choices.

This is Victor Noir.

Getty Images

He’s happy to see you.

Wikimedia Commons

The grave, which shows Noir at the moment of his death, lying on the ground in street clothes, is famous for the very noticeable bulge in his pants.

Flickr / istolethetv

It’s not clear why this was done. Was it a reference to Noir’s…active social life? We’ll likely never know.

What we do know, however, is that in the years after his death, Noir’s grave became a fertility symbol to Parisian women.

Getty Images

It’s believed that touching or rubbing Noir’s bulge and kissing the statue on the lips, then leaving a flower in the upturned top hat, will guarantee fertility, childbirth, and a good sex life.

Because of this, the face and crotch of the statue show considerable wear, having been rubbed shiny by countless hands — and who knows what else.

Flickr / Mark B. Schlemmer

Although, because of the wear, it kind of just looks like an unfortunate stain.

Flickr / Mark B. Schlemmer

In 2004, a fence was erected (ahem) around the statue to prevent these kinds of goings-on, but it was removed by popular demand.

Flickr / NatalieMaynor

And people still visit Noir to this day for a little quality time.

Flickr / ex nomade

(via Messy Nessy Chic)

If you happen to visit this famous cemetery, stop by the grave of Victor Noir. He’s always happy to have visitors. Let’s keep the inappropriate acts to a minimum, though.

When you picture the massive stone heads on Easter Island (a tiny speck way out in the Pacific) you probably picture just that — heads. Yet these incredible sculptures are so much more.

The statues, called moai, were built between the years of 1250 and 1500 CE by the Rapa Nui people, who originally hailed from Polynesia. There are 887 of them in total on the island, and the tallest of them is 30 feet tall and weighs 82 tons. Despite their massive size, there’s evidence that many were moved around the island.

The carvings represent deified ancestors, and were originally positioned to gaze out over their ancestral lands.

Wikimedia Commons / Aurbina

This field is studded with moai heads, which have been here for hundreds of years.

Wikimedia Commons / Dropus

But the statues aren’t just heads. Underground, researchers found that they actually have complete bodies. Over the centuries, the elements had simply buried them neck-deep in soil. The bodies extend several meters down into the soil, and while many have been excavated, more are still buried. The bodies are also covered in petroglyphs that can’t yet be deciphered.

Excavated statues at Ahu Tongariki.

Wikimedia Commons / Bjorn Christian Torrissen

Some of the more recently built moai have these topknots, called pukao, which represented the topknot worn by chieftains.

Wikimedia Commons / Bjarte Sorensen

The statues would have also been decorated with eyes like this, made from white coral. This statue’s eyes have been reconstructed. It’s believed that when the moai were new, their decorations would have explained who they were meant to represent.

Most moai are on the coasts, and this excavated group is the most inland of all the moai.

Wikimedia Commons / Ian Sewell

Several digs have revealed the bodies below the surface.

Easter Island Statue Project

Easter Island Statue Project

The digs have also exposed the carvings on the statue’s backs. We don’t know what they mean yet.

Easter Island Statue Project

It’s possible that they represent the traditional Rapa Nui tattoos that the people had, or maybe they communicate a story about the particular ancestor. They’re currently being studied.

Easter Island Statue Project

Sometime around 1500, construction of the moai stopped. The people’s religion shifted, too, from ancestor worship to a religion that worshipped a half-man, half-bird figure.

Easter Island Statue Project

By the 1700s, due to the island’s clans clashing and struggling for power, many of the moai were toppled, while others fell during earthquakes. After that, the island, which was facing food shortages due to deforestation, was colonized by Christian missionaries, who began repressing the native traditions. Because of all this, the moai’s true stories are still shrouded in mystery.

Today, more than 50 moai have been re-erected, excavated, and placed back on their original stone platforms. Some have been shipped off to museums in other areas of the world.

Wikimedia Commons / Jerrye and Roy Klotz MD

Wikimedia Commons / Ian Sewell

(via ArtFido, Wikipedia)

Today, the moai of Easter Island are included in the UNESCO World Heritage sites, and their study is ongoing. Organizations like the Easter Island Statue Project are continuing to discover new information about the statues, how they were built and transported, and about the people who built them. If you ever venture out to Easter Island, be sure to check them out. You really can’t miss them!

For more mysterious works of times and peoples past, see what others in the world have created: