Monkey Business

On my ususal route home through the Chosun University campus today, I glimpsed from the corner of my eye a couple of large sculptures. One appeared to be the shape of a woman, the other a large geometric design. I'd never noticed them before, so I wandered over to take a look.
To my surprise, I stumbled upon a small and quirky sculpture park, filled with wacky works ranging from giant preying mantis and iron-clad horses, to strange robotically-penised men with cameras for heads and giant upturned ice-cream cones.
The lady above was by far my favourite. She is large, made of stone, and a really interesting sight. To give you an idea of her size, her hair bun is not too far off head height.

I soon realised the area is next to the university's art and design building, and a little more exploring led me to a large outdoor space where trainee sculptors work in stone and wood. Giant distorted stone faces lay on their sides, next to the inner workings of large wooden animals, a bright red stone baby sat silently in the corner - but a living soul was nowhere to be found.

A door to one of the artists studios sat slightly ajar and I couldn't resist a peek inside - but as I crept in, I felt a cold air of spookiness. Maybe I've seen one to many horror movies but the empty, echoey space was filled with all manner of freakish sights, and the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end.
First I was greeted by a couple of full-sized naked women, arms broken off, legs damaged, their faces fractured into broken stares. To my right, giant cuboids lay stacked on their sides, creepy coloured faces staring out from each square. Further beyond them a small, naked african boy walked a frozen walk, hand-in-hand with his mother behind.
With an intake of breath I rounded a corner, but then quickly stopped with a start.
A man in a suit sat on the ground in front of me, relaxed, with legs outstretched. He appeared to be posing quietly for a picture, I presumed being drawn up by an artist I couldn't yet see. He was sat with his back to me, so I whispered a quiet 'hello' as I approached to say hi, a little worried that I may be in trouble for taking pictures in the artists space without permission.
As i got closer though, I realised that this was no man at all - but in fact a life-sized sculpture of Monkey!
The simian character from the retro TV show lay before me, frozen in time, in a snazzy three piece suit, complete with shirt and tie - and I realised I was still alone in the studio.
The whole place began to feel even creepier and I started to get the feeling we often call a sixth sense, whereby we experience a hunch that danger is afoot, or that something bad is going to happen - even without any real evidence.
I believe scientists have pinned down this feeling to the fact that when our brain doesn't like what it's processing (such as an empty building full of eerie statues, something my brain perhaps sees as a danger due to the aforementioned one-too-many horror movies) it percieves it as a danger, and gives us a feeling of wrongness to warn us that all is not well.
Either way I got the hell out of there, back into the sunshine outside - my blipping completed for another day, and my underwear needing to be rigorously checked.


You can watch the awesomely wacky intro for cult TV show 'Monkey Magic', starring Monkey, here.


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