Lost Dogs

The Art Experiment Sydney Couldn’t Resist

What started as an unusual public art experiment quickly became one of Gillie and Marc’s most unforgettable projects.

In just six months, the artists created more than 100 fibreglass dog sculptures and placed 100 of them throughout greater Sydney. The idea was simple: put art into public spaces, completely accessible to everyone, and see what happened.

What happened was extraordinary.

The dogs began disappearing almost immediately. At first, the sculptures were left completely unsecured — and some vanished so quickly that one group had been taken before Gillie and Marc had even reached the end of the street. They tried plastic ties, then cords and eventually chains, but even that wasn’t enough. Determined thieves arrived armed with bolt cutters.

By the end of the experiment, all but three of the 100 dogs had been stolen, while several others had been vandalised.

Gillie and Marc never recovered the missing sculptures, although years later there were occasional tantalising sightings. One of the most memorable was a red dog reportedly spotted sitting proudly on the rooftop of a building in Bondi.

Fortunately, sales of Gillie and Marc’s work through galleries helped cover the considerable cost of creating the sculptures. But after discovering just how far people would go to take home a piece of public art, there was one thing the artists knew for certain:

They wouldn’t be repeating the experiment anytime soon.