OVER THE COURSE OF ALMOST 50 years, from the early 1960s until his death in 2010, Finnish-born artist Veijo Rönkkönen constructed nearly 500 concrete figures and displayed them on the grounds of the home he’d lived in since birth.

The majority of these are human statues performing a variety of activities; one noteworthy sight features a cluster of roughly 200 figures, purportedly self-portraits of the artist, in various yoga poses. The sculptures are not particularly lifelike, but rather possess an otherworldly and at times downright sinister quality, with blank, sunken eyes, skeletal body proportions, ghoulish grins, and, in some cases, the use of real human teeth. Non-human figures include large treelike structures with cone-shaped branches.

Their expressions are scary, since they aren’t fully realistic: instead they come close to the Uncanny Valley. Some of them also have real human teeth, and sound effects that make the whole park even creepier. The biggest part of the statue collection is formed by 200 statues in different yoga positions, something that Veijo Rönkkönen knew to perfection. The exposition has turned into a tourist attraction for the little town of Parikalla. Around 25.000 people visit there every year and the new owners of the park after Veijo’s death have planned to make his park an even bigger attraction.