The ten characters, collectively called Crowd, are the work of artists Liz Whitehead and Paul Harrington.

The pair were awarded a £5,000 National Lottery arts grant and raised other cash to install the pieces between the Palace and West piers.

Their 7ft human sculptures will be in place for the rest of this month.

The project is the first work from new Brighton art group LiPP.

Liz and Paul also work for community group Same Sky, with previous work including pieces for Brighton Festival's opening parade and the winter Burning of the Clocks ceremony.

They designed the Crowd figures themselves before using steel frames and wire mesh cages to hold in place stones collected from the beach.

Liz, 34, said: "It was an opportunity to do something which is very interactive.

"It is semi-permanent, whereas a lot of our stuff ends up being destroyed.

"The design evolved from looking at ways of doing something stable on the beach. We have been very pleased with the response.

"Maintenance is quite high because things like this tend to get abused. We will have to top up the stones every few days."

The sculptures, which will be on show until the start of May, are the latest in a series of artworks to be installed in the town.

In April last year a controversial metal curve, called Passacaglia, got the thumbs-down when it was unveiled on the beach.

In September two noise-emitting orbs, installed at the revamped Churchill Square, provoked a mixed reaction from residents.

And the following month a £40,000 doughnut-shaped piece, called Afloat, was unveiled at the end of the groyne to the west of Palace Pier.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.