A matter of aesthetics, but netizens nix 10 public sculptures

China's 10 ugliest urban sculptures have been rooted out by netizens, providing a fresh angle on city construction and public aesthetics.

Hosted by the culture channel of Sohu.com, a widely-used portal in China, the selection has collected 59 permanent public sculptures created since the 1980s, and which have been rated "ugly" on Internet posts.

Started on Aug 27, the online survey took more than three months. By Dec 15, nearly 5 million people online had ranked the top 10 "winners".

Eight professional sculptors and art practitioners supervised the selection result and provided expert comments.

"Some of the selected sculptures are just simply ugly without any good meaning or aesthetic value," comments sculptor Bao Pao, who initiated the selection process.

For example, the sculpture named Supporting the Old in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, features a man supported by his two wives on both sides, with his genitals exposed. The work ranks number 7 with 244,174 votes.

"And some works are just a pile-up of symbols without originality," Bao continues. Wangjing's New Landmark in Beijing's Chaoyang district, for example, is a mimic of the China Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

"However, the top three 'ugliest' sculptures are actually quite good, which follow the basic rules of design and express the artists' original thoughts," Bao stresses.

Life, with 310,886 votes, was voted the ugliest of them all, This is in Hubei's provincial capital Wuhan, and is an abstract bird's nest made from stainless-steel sticks and a few "bird eggs". The expert team generally considers it as a fine example of modern composition.

"Such a result reveals the huge aesthetic gap between the public and the professionals," says Liang Kegang, curator of Yuan Art Museum. "It's the responsibility of art educators if ordinary people can't understand a good sculpture."

Bao adds: "It also reminds sculptors that a public sculpture is meaningless if it has nothing to do with ordinary life."