New €50,000 art sculpture on roundabout is named ‘Node 81’

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The official name for a new public sculpture in Tallaght that has divided opinion has been revealed.

The new sculpture installed in October on the Glenview Roundabout on the N81 is officially called ‘Node 81 – a point becomes a line, a line becomes a way’ by artist Liam O’Callaghan.

“The public art commission complements SDCC’s N81 Landscape Improvement Scheme, along one of the county’s main transport corridors; connecting significant numbers of commuters with Dublin city centre and only a few minutes from the national motorway network,” South Dublin County Council said.

They said the site on the N81 roundabout was chosen “to mark a prominent gateway into Tallaght”.

“There are a number of examples across the country of artworks on roundabouts and on national roads including the Polestar Roundabout in Letterkenny and the Marker Tree on the N7 at Kingswood Interchange.”

According to the artist’s brief, Node 81 is an “artwork in coloured steel that references the spire of St Maelruain’s Church in Tallaght, the buildings and housing that have grown up around it in the wider area of Tallaght and the diversity of the communities in the area.”

Public response to the sculpture has been mixed, with many locals taking to social media to compare it to a playground climbing frame or “monkey bars”.

“It looks like a teleporter drove over a heap of scaffolding,” one comment on social media noted.

“It looks like a tech graph drawing for junior cert. Did they mix their homework up with their child’s before heading into the council that day?” another commenter wrote.

There was also angry reactions over the €50,000 cost of the sculpture, with many commenters saying it could have been better spent elsewhere, and that a flower bed would have worked better on the roundabout.

“That’s ridiculous, if they were gonna spend that amount of money on it, then they should have at least put something that represents Tallaght and its history… not whatever they are calling…THAT!” a commenter said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme