In 1994, in a disused boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, the K Foundation - better known as music act The KLF - burnt £1million in cash.

The money, raised from their success on the pop charts, disappeared up in smoke to the slack-jawed astonishment of pretty much the entire nation. Not to mention their bank manager and dependants.

It was an art statement - performance art, in fact. And, as with all good art it sparked more discussion than a nice landscape.

And when the Turner Prize winner was unveiled in Margate last week, the exhibition of the shortlist at the town’s Turner Contemporary had plenty of people talking.

But Kent is no stranger to the weird and wonderful world of art in all its different forms.

Indeed, at least two of our major seaside towns, Folkestone and Margate, have used it as the catalyst for regeneration of the entire area.

We cast our eye over some of the county's best known, and sometimes most controversial, public works over the years which have captured the imagination and seen reactions which range from 'thought provoking' to simply 'a load of old tosh'.

As with all art, make your own mind up...but give it all a moment of thought first. Art's a bit like wine, you need to swirl it around your tastebuds a bit and soak up the different notes before you can declare it a pile of tripe or a masterpiece.

Banksy

It would be fair to say the majority of folk love a good Banksy. The street artist has excelled in his anonymity and impactful, primarily stencil-based, works which tend to appear on a wall when the rest of us are in the land of nod.

Unfortunately, the delight he's delivered normally turns to a bitter battle as to how to protect or sell the work given the remarkable prices his art achieves at auction.

There have been two confirmed Banksy works in the county.

The first was called Art Buff and appeared during the Folkestone Triennial in 2014. Daubed on the side of an amusement arcade and featuring an elderly woman looking at an empty plinth (needless to say, some male genitalia was spray painted onto the plinth by local 'art critics').

It became an instant attraction before the owners of the building decided to cut it out and try and flog it in America. The inevitable dispute over ownership saw it returned to the town and into the hands of the Creative Foundation...which has kept it in storage ever since. Seems a shame.

The second work was, of course, his EU flag with a workman chipping off a star on the side of a building in Dover. The enormous work pulled in the crowds and was visible to traffic heading to the town. But no sooner was a campaign to protect it under way, it was painted over...for reasons still not clear. Another shame - especially as the artist admitted he planned to re-visit the work on the day Brexit actually took place.

Just what is it with Kent and Banksy?

Alex Chinneck

You have to hand it to this artist, his work is real 'stop you in your tracks' stuff. While his name may not be that familiar, his work may well be.

Working from his studio in Wye, near Ashford, he's created some large-scale temporary works - most notably using the frontages of buildings.

In 2013 he removed the facade of a derelict building in Margate and replaced it with what appears to be the front of the house slumping into the front garden called From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes.

Last year he turned a soon-to-be-demolished building in Ashford to appear as if it was being 'unzipped'. Clever chap.

Antony Gormley

Sculptor Antony Gormley is, among other things, the man behind the Angel of the North - but he also has had several of his famous body works on display in Kent.

One of the cast iron figures, based on his own body, stood on the sands of Margate, becoming submerged when the tide came in, while another stands in Folkestone - derived from his Another Place installation which sees 100 of the figures staring out to sea on the sands of a beach in Merseyside.

But one often overlooked is a work called Transport - a 6ft floating body made of nails which was suspended above the site of the tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral in 2011.

The artist explained: "We are all the temporary inhabitants of a body. It is our house, instrument and medium."

'Nuff said.

Knife Angel

Ollie Kemp reported on the Knife Angel coming to Rochester

There is something rather disconcerting about something so closely aligned with purity being created with tools of violence.

And, therefore, it is little wonder the Knife Angel created a stir when it went on show earlier this year at Rochester Cathedral.

Created out of 100,000 confiscated blades at British Ironworks by artist Alfie Bradley, the 25ft-high statue looked more like a horror movie creation.

The project was a collaboration between the Home Office, 43 UK police constabularies, families of victims and the British Ironwork Centre in Shropshire. The statue toured the UK to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime.

Almost 30,000 people flocked to see it during its stay in the county.

A sheep

Perhaps technically not designed purely as a piece of art, but a weird installation none the less that created plenty of debate, so it earns its place in the list.

During the mid-1990s the 18-ft high sheep with grassy coat was installed in Maidstone High Street to promote a flower festival.

While towering above shoppers, it divided opinion and was certainly eye-catching. After moving to fresh pastures on a number of occasions, it continues to flourish in the garden of a hotel in the town.

Mermaid

When artist Dean Tweedy painted a mural in 2015 close to amusements in Sheerness, as part of an arts festival, few quite expected what he delivered.

Rather than a traditional picture postcard scene it was with a difference - a mermaid about to push the detonator on a supply of TNT to ignite the wreck of the stricken SS Montgomery - the Second World War munitions ship which lies off the island with its fragile load of bombs still intact.

It's slogan "Welcome to Sheerness, you'll have a blast" created headlines and prompted one local to describe it as looking like a "terrorist mermaid".

The Queen

You'd think Her Majesty would have been depicted in every conceivable standing or seated position in terms of portraits and statues during her reign. But, remarkably, Gravesend pulled off a first last year when it unveiled the first statue of her in a sitting position, created by the critically acclaimed Douglas Jennings.

The seven-tonne bronze statue is certainly impressive and stimulated debate on the monarchy - as seen by a traffic cone placed on her head within a day of its unveiling and someone spray painting the word "parasite" on it a few months later.

Remembrance

It's rare, but sometimes a piece of art can truly put a lump in your throat.

Last year, to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, sand artists created an image of the poet Wilfred Owen on the beach at Folkestone. It was where he left the country for the last time before dying in action one week before the Armistice.

Created on Remembrance Sunday, crowds watched as the incoming time gently consumed his image.

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