Artist Sets Guinness World Record for Largest Sock Monkey
Emilia Evans-Munton, a Glasgow School of Art graduate, said she made the giant sculpture as an “ode to the toys that are left behind.”
It's been almost 25 years since I accidentally lost my once-beloved Beanie Baby squirrel during a Boston trolley tour, yet she's the first thing that came to mind when artist Emilia Evans-Munton explained her record-breaking artwork — a giant sock monkey that's said to be the largest in the world.
Measuring in at almost 50 feet long, Evans-Munton's enormous soft sculpture was recognized by Guinness World Records last year — but the sculpture was originally created as an “ode to the toys that are left behind,” the artist said.
A recent graduate from the Glasgow School of Art, Evans-Munton created the sock monkey, titled “Remember I'm Still Here” (2025), for the Sculpture and Environmental Art program's degree show. Fashioned from corduroy and stuffed with straw, the sculpture lay in the back parking lot of a university building for several weeks, enduring the elements as well as wear and tear from regular interaction with viewers.
“The scale of the sock monkey reduced adults to a childlike scale, sparking play and wonder amongst onlookers in a childlike way,” Evans-Munton said in an email. “One of the best parts was seeing people who were just walking down the hill, going about their day, get excited about seeing the piece through the gates and come in to lie on it in the sun!”
After the degree show, Evans-Munton brought the work to the Field Maneuvers music festival in Norfolk, England, where it became even more dirty, faded, and torn in some places from people hugging, jumping on, cuddling, and otherwise messing around with it.
She emphasized that the work's disfigurement indicated how much it was played with and adored, “literally having been left behind by the artist, yet loved by the audience.”
The artist explained that the concept arose from coming across an old sock monkey she had made, one of a set crafted with her mother and grandmother as parting gifts for all the girls in her primary school class.
“I started to wonder where they are now,” Evans-Munton said. “The sock monkeys still exist; maybe in an attic or a charity shop, or perhaps they are still loved and cared for.”
After being loved on and then laundered, the work now sits safely in the artist's grandmother's attic for the time being. That leaves me wondering what became of my sweet squirrel — bite-sized in comparison and yet equally adored by three-year-old Rhea.
