a quick note - this article was originally going to be on Cath Campbells designs for the roundabouts at the Northumberland Business Park. The one we really liked was this which is based on the idea of pins stuck to a map. its funky. but when we couldn’t get anyone to send us background information we ended up doing a google search for roundabout art and came up with the following instead

roundabout dogs

the roundabout dog phenomenon began when a newly commissioned sculpture by artist Stina Opitz was vandalised. the two foot high concrete dog was destroyed where it stood, on the traffic roundabout outside Ikea in the town of Linkoping. while Stina was working on a vandal proof replacement, a homemade version of the dog appeared, crudely constructed from planks of wood, it stood in place of the original artwork.

it was joined by a few more dogs and the craze caught on. since then dozens of dogs have appeared and the movement has spread to towns all over Sweden. social commentators have been falling over themselves to figure out what it means.

is it a stand against vandalism and show of solidarity with the artist?

is it a protest against non representational forms of art ironically become a concept in itself?

is it a bunch of people having a laugh?

are they trying to reclaim the environment as their own and fight back against bland commitee approved public art schemes?

and if anyone can tell us what Stina Opitz thinks of the dogs please let us know

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