Butt ugly public art of the Black Country, part 1.

This week: the Pegasus statue at Holly Hall, Dudley. My problem with this thing is the sheer size of it; it's fucking huge. If I were to stand next to it I'd come about halfway up the plinth it's standing on, as demonstrated by this amazing bit of computer graphics wizardry.

You see? Massive. And, like everything else in the Midlands, it's in the middle of a gigantic traffic roundabout so there's absolutely no missing it. But I suppose a biblically-proportioned statue of a mythical Greek horse/bird monster is very fitting for the Black Country because...er.. because of... oh. Well, apparently it turns out that there's no reason whatsoever for this eyesore, no famous connection linking Dudley with Pegasus at all. Nothing. They reckon that the shiny bits on the wings symbolise our proud glass-making heritage but stuff like that always makes me wonder why they never put up statues to our other great traditions, like wife beating or rickets.

I had a hard time finding pictures of this statue and I wasn't exactly spoilt for choice when I did; this was one of three that I managed to unearth from the web. I could probably have found, in less time and with greater ease, a picture of a man sticking his own hand up his bottom; in fact, I know I could. And that's not a good sign.