This uncanny Taylor Swift waxwork is haunting my brain

Waxworks are a divisive art form. When they’re well executed they can be a marvel of human artistry – when they’re not so good, they make for some fabulous laughable content. The Panoptikum Wax Museum in Hamburg recently unveiled its latest model of pop megastar Taylor Swift which left Swifties a little bemused, to say the least.

Sculpting in any form is a tricky art to master, whether it’s digitally via tools like ZBrush or Blender, or with more traditional mediums such as wax. Capturing a celebrity’s likeness adds the extra pressure of appealing to their fans, and with a ferocious fanbase like the Swifties in the mix, it was never going to be an easy task to impress the pop queen’s loyal subjects.

The Panoptikum Wax Museum is Germany’s oldest and largest collection of Wax figures, so typically I’d expect a certain level of refinement to its craft. While the Miss Swift waxwork isn’t the most terrible example of wax-based artistry (the Izidoro Armacollo Wax Museum takes the crown for that), there’s a certain uncanny, alien-like essence to the Taylor waxwork that sends a palpable chill down my spine.

It turns out I’m not alone – many fans flocked to social media to share their strong opinions on the bizarre figure, with one X user commenting “It looks like someone saw a pic of Tay once then described what they remembered to the sculptor.” Others chimed in with equally scathing remarks such as “Baby this is an art teacher from Minnesota” and simply, “Throw it away”.

This isn’t the first instance of offbeat waxwork design we’ve seen recently. This strange Dwayne Johnson wax figure was criticised for whitewashing his Samoan heritage and was quickly amended after drawing the attention of The Rock himself. Given her global fame, Taylor Swift’s likeness has been reproduced in even more bizarre forms, like this bizarre AI deepfake that educates kids via TikTok – hey, it beats the usual brainrot content.