Drive By Art - Art you can see from the car

Gregor Samsa

I think one of the problems with a lot of the roadside art in Ireland is scale.

There's a kind of aluminium snake on the M18 (Ennis Bypass) that coils into the ground along the embankment, and even though it's maybe 20 meters long, it's completely lost against the scale of the motorway cutting through the hill with the huge embankment each side.

I know not every sculpture can (or should be) on the scale of Anthony Gormley's really impressive Angel of the North in Gateshead, but there could be better consideration for the location of some of the pieces. The ball with the road markings on the Naas road (Perpetual Motion) is perfectly sized and located.

I think the Bull and Man works particularly because it draws the two sides of the road together, effectively putting you (the motorist) in the middle of the sculpture - if only for a second. Some of the other installations try to do this too (The disk and ring on the M4, for instance), but they don't work as well.

By the way, seemingly the coloured crosses on the M7 in Kildare is called "The Race of the Black Pig" (by Dan George). I don't particularly like it, but at least it's big enough to be noticed.

There's a fairly good selection of photos of road sculpture around the country here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/roadsculptureireland/pool/

Edit: just noticed this was an ooooooooooooooooooooold thread that got resurrected prior to my reply

peasant

Mutz wrote: »

The Iron Knight on the hill on the Sligo Road is class. Near all the lakes - don't know the precise location.

It's at the Lough Arrow / Lough Key viewing point ...and I agree, it's gorgeous



oops ..yes ...old thread ........now with new pics