British Designs

A border terrier and an English pointer admire Drumstick Park by Robert Nicol.

Mikael Buck/More Than

British designer Dominic Wilcox is a master of the whimsical. His childlike imagination has created inventions such as a stained-glass driverless car and a helmet with a crane that serves cereal. He has brought children’s inventions and imaginary friends to life, and last weekend in London, he created a contemporary art exhibition for dogs.

Dogs check out paintings that use a dog-friendly color spectrum palette.

A border terrier jumps into a 10-foot dog bowl filled with more than 1, 000 balls.

Wilcox engineered a series of interactive, contemporary art installations based on things that dogs like to do. Cruising Canines is an open car window simulator that features a fan to replicate the wind, scented with the dog-friendly perfume of raw meat and old shoes. Dinnertime Dreams is a 10-foot dog bowl filled with more than 1, 000 balls that look like dog food. Other exhibits allow dogs to chase interactive sprinklers or lose themselves in a mesmerizing video of a bouncing Frisbee.

Pups hang out in a giant representation of a dog bowl filled with food.

And because the show was not simply an indoor version of a dog park, Wilcox curated a series of paintings and multimedia exhibits by five British artists tailored to the gray-yellow-blue color spectrum seen by dogs and displayed at dog-eye level for their viewing pleasure.

A springer spaniel checks out a multimedia installation that simulates a Frisbee bouncing around a screen.

“Contemporary art has long been an important source of inspiration and fascination for humans, but never before has it been created with a view to drawing the same kind of emotions out of animals instead, ” Wilcox said. “While it’s certainly one of the more interesting challenges I’ve faced in my career, it feels great to have created such a truly unique collection of interactive artworks for a completely new audience.”

A springer spaniel hangs its head out of an open car window simulator powered by a giant fan that wafts the dog-friendly scent of raw meat and old shoes.