Do you recognize this statue? Or who is in it?
February 22, 2017 6:51 PM   Subscribe

Link inside of a man standing statue

This statue is the one we're trying to figure out who it is or where it is, or both, if possible?

I have no other information.
posted by SuzySmith to Media & Arts (26 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reminds me of Mark Twain, but that's just a guess.
posted by she's not there at 6:58 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Already tried the Twain angle, he has too little hair (and it's too neat) to be Twain, plus none of the image results for "mark twain statue" match up. :(

Reverse image search via google and tineye give zilch, and the pic has no EXIF data either...
posted by mrbill at 7:33 PM on February 22, 2017


You have NO other information?

Do you know it was taken in the United States?

Did you upload this image to that link, or find it there?

My money is on midwestern science museum or library, and that is the founding benefactor.

If you do figure it out, please add some more tags.
posted by intermod at 7:47 PM on February 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


I thought Teddy Roosevelt, but searching his name plus "statue" doesn't turn up anything that looks like that.
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:47 PM on February 22, 2017


Response by poster: That is literally all the information I have. It was posted at that link.

No clue where in the world it might be, even.
posted by SuzySmith at 7:51 PM on February 22, 2017


How did you get the link? Because searching for the terms in the URL (truthseeker, "anomaly intel," exogenous) leads you to a bunch of Ingress pages. As I understand, Ingress is some sort of virtual geocaching type game. "Truthseeker" is this person. If you search for "storage.googleapis.com/truthseeker/AnomalyIntel/" you get a bunch of sites, mostly in Japanese, with various puzzle clues. None of the sites contain "Exogenous" though.

So, not an answer, but a potential route of investigation. The statue doesn't look at all Japanese, of course.
posted by AFABulous at 8:19 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: AFABulous, that is why I'm looking for it! It's part of the game play and is a portal somewhere, we just don't know where.
posted by SuzySmith at 8:20 PM on February 22, 2017


This may sound crazy, but the bulge in the outer wall of the second building looks a hell of a lot like a mihrab, so possibly that building is a mosque or Muslim community center? That doesn't really answer the question of where this building and statue are located, though.
posted by duffell at 8:25 PM on February 22, 2017


Well, I don't have a definitive answer for you, but maybe some of the stuff I found could help someone else get there:

" Anomaly Intel", part of the photo's URL, seems to be a massive worldwide (in person) RPG/geocache game that, from what I glanced at, appears to be taken pretty seriously by its participants. (Before encountering talk of "agents" on some of the pages, its pseudoscience / pseudospirituality came across as credulous and downright culty.) Within the game, statues serve as "portals", and so they seem to be a recurring theme in the group's webpages. Given the global reach of this game (I saw events from Seoul to Vilnius to Chicago), it seems this statue could be just about anywhere (possibly Vilnius!). I do think this could be found with some persistent digging through this group's event history, but, while promising, I am unfortunately unwilling to do that at this moment.

Anyway, that's my two cents of Internet sleuthing/stalking... now go ahead and ask me about what my exes are up to these days ;)
posted by charlemangy at 8:27 PM on February 22, 2017


1. Architecture does not read American to me
2. Lack of windows, brick, bare trees, clear sky suggest a cold climate
3. But it's worth having a solar panel, so not too far north?
4. White man in 1800s western dress = Europe

My gut says Poland or Germany for some reason. I'm guessing this is a library or university and this guy is a benefactor.
posted by AFABulous at 8:31 PM on February 22, 2017


My wild guess is that looks like a university campus and the guy is probably a founder. No clue where or who though. I guess it could also be a church complex.

Someone with knowledge of 19th century facial hair and dress might be able to narrow down the decade based on the size of the mustache and lack of crazy sideburns.

On preview: green, half dead grass + bare trees looks like it could be southern U.S.-y to me.
posted by TheLateGreatAbrahamLincoln at 8:38 PM on February 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


TR is usually depicted with his pince-nez.
posted by brujita at 9:43 PM on February 22, 2017


I still think American rather than European, based on the great casualness of the stance. Or else quite recent, but who is still putting up statues of 19C men in Europe?
posted by praemunire at 10:18 PM on February 22, 2017 [3 favorites]


The mention above that there is a suggestion of Islamic architecture, plus the western dress, makes me wonder if it is the statue of an early 20th century reformer in the Balkans or Turkey.

Kemal Ataturk has statues in a bow tie and with his hand is his trouser pocket, but his hair seems to be always depicted as brushed back from a receding hairline, and since he's an ex-soldier even the more casual poses seem to be very square-shouldered: after looking at a page of Ataturk statues the mystery figure looks really slouched.
posted by Azara at 5:12 AM on February 23, 2017


I wouldn't call it an "informal" pose. I think it's a variation of the "hidden hand" or "hand in waistcoat" pose used in portraits in the 18th and 19th centuries. Think Napoleon.

It looks somewhat like the picture of Luther Burbank on this page, but I can't find any statues of him that look like this. But the style of mustache and clothing might help with dating. It seems to be the late 19th century. If you look up Lincoln's cabinet, the clothing and facial hair styles are very different.

The buildings' lack of windows made me think of laboratories, which is why I started Googling "19th century scientists." I've also googled 19th century with doctors, musicians, philanthropists, astronomers, statesmen, and writers with no luck. And I've googled "statues" with Warsaw, Vilnius, and Krakow. Perhaps someone else can think of other possibilities.
posted by FencingGal at 7:20 AM on February 23, 2017


This reminded me of the statues in Bulgaria which seemed to fit some of the other comments. I checked with a Bulgarian. She recognized the face but can not place it. He may have been a scholar or figure in Bulgarian independence (or both). He may be Turkish as well which is why she would recognize the face but not know the person. I would maybe check founders of universities in that region.
posted by Yorrick at 7:47 AM on February 23, 2017


Is it Multatuli. I always refer to the statue on the Torensluis bridge as "the Mark Twain statue."
posted by humboldt32 at 10:10 AM on February 23, 2017


I'm sure you've tried this, but I uploaded the image to Google Image Search and got this long list of visual references that are similar to the uploaded image. I don't have the time right now to scroll through them all, but you might!
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:12 AM on February 23, 2017


I would cut just the face and do a reverse image search on that. Although it looks like Wyatt Earp from Tombstone so you might just get actors back.

That clothing reads 1860-1880 to me.
posted by fshgrl at 11:55 AM on February 23, 2017


The walrus mustache is more of an 1890s thing.
posted by FencingGal at 1:31 PM on February 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


I wouldn't call it an "informal" pose. I think it's a variation of the "hidden hand" or "hand in waistcoat" pose used in portraits in the 18th and 19th centuries. Think Napoleon.

That's a very stylized pose. This guy looks like he's rooting around in his pocket for spare change!
posted by praemunire at 1:49 PM on February 23, 2017


ive tried reverse searching the building and the face and not much turned up.
posted by radsqd at 9:05 PM on February 23, 2017


If you zoom in, he has a square-cross-shaped watch fob, on the buttons of his vest, if that helps? I haven't found an exact match but apparently some Masonic fobs look similar, and various military medals (can't imagine you'd use a military medal as a watch fob though?).
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:00 AM on February 24, 2017


I believe the shape of the watch is generally called a Maltese cross even though a proper Maltese cross is v-shaped at the ends of its arms; I guess with the flat ends it's technically a cross pattée, but I think people often just loosely call it Maltese anyways. It was (is?) a popular shape for all kinds of things, including military medals and Masonic imagery and, yes, watch fobs. I'm not sure if there's enough detail in the statue or the photo of the statue to discern much more than that.
posted by mhum at 12:29 PM on February 24, 2017




One aspect of the statue that hasn't been remarked upon yet is the shirt. There's only one button (or shirt stud) visible. What kind of shirt style is that? Does that mean something to anyone?
posted by mhum at 3:23 PM on February 27, 2017


« Older Racist statements at work   |   Would you like franchise with that? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.