By and large I'm in favour of Public Artwork beside roads. Particularly if/when we ever get a Proper Motorway network the drive between cities while much faster will be far more boring. I'd hate the only landmark between our cities to be Toll Gates.
The Globe at the Naas junction is excellent. Apart completely from the fact that I like it as a pice of Art, My heart lifts every time I pass it going South because I'm leaving Dublin and Traffic Gridlock behind and it lifts Going North because I'm nearly home after the 2 hour-ish drive from Waterford.
Roadside Art is very unusual because you will see it more than most artwork, but only in passing. You might spend an hour in a Gallery looking at a Jack Yeats painting and then never look at it again in your life. With Roadside art you see it constantly but only in very short snippets.
I remember as a kid there was a Tree not far from where I lived that had a Knot on the side of the trunk. It was shaped exactly like a Pigs Head. I was fascinated by it, I'd crane my neck every time we drove pas. It hadn't been carved it was just like that. Over the years it rotted to nothing, but I still look at where it used to be when I drive past.
Give me Roadside Art over Roadside Billboards any day.
-Rd