From the bronze Elon Musk tribute nobody asked for to the world's worst wax figures museum, we've seen some pretty diabolic statues over the last few months. But when sculpture is done right, it can be utterly mind-blowing – as is the case with this example at Orlando Airport.
Titled The Traveller, the statue by Duane Hanson depicts a man napping against various luggage bags. And as thousands of Reddit users have commented, if the sculpture weren't sitting inside a glass enclosure, we'd believe we were looking at a real person. (Check out our art techniques guide if you're inspired to get creative.)
The sculpture regularly pops up on Reddit, and users are always blown away by its realism. "Duane Hanson is a legend," one user comments. "Seeing pictures of his work doesn’t do it justice. When you find one in the wild they’re usually something you’d interact with and never realise it’s a sculpture." And the statue also recently went viral on TikTok, when one user posted a video asking "who else always thinks this guy is real at Orlando Airport?"
According to Newsweek, Hanson created the sculpture for the airport in 1986, and it can be found in Terminal A. The artist, who died in 1996, was renowned for creating hyper-realistic sculptures of normal people, made from bronze polychromed in oil.
The artist was renowned for his sculptures of everyday subjects, such as these at Berlin's Museum Frieder Burda (Image credit: Art Blart)
Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
