A pack of neon dogs, complete with illuminated bones and dog poo, is set to light up Hounslow this winter.
They will light up Bell Square , at the western end of Hounslow High Street, next month.
The colourful creatures are the work of artist Deepa Mann-Kler, who says they were inspired by the balloon animals so adored by her children and little ones everywhere.
"I liked the idea of recreating those balloon animals using materials that are diametrically the opposite of balloons to recreate something vibrant and playful," she says.
"I added the neon poo because we've all stepped in the stuff and seeing something so disgusting in a different light always makes people smile."
Any children's entertainer worth his salt could rustle up a balloon pooch in a few squeaks, but it's a little harder with neon, as she found.
Working with what she said is Belfast's last neon workshop, their first effort was more akin to an angular reindeer and even when they got it right, each hound took two to three days to make.
Despite the challenges, Mann-Kler, who quit her job with the Northern Ireland Equality Commission to devote more time to her art, loves working with neon.
"The light you get is like nothing else I've experienced. There's real movement inside the tubes, in terms of the gas and the energy. It's very alive as a medium," she says.
"It creates a shared experience, which is lovely. It's not high-brow and it's not stuck in a gallery, so it's making art more accessible, which is important to me."
You can see Deepa Mann-Kler's neon dogs in Bell Square, Hounslow, on Saturday, December 5, from 10am-7pm.
