FAQ - The Mount Gambier Railway Lands

Public art plays an important role in exploring our identity and fostering civic pride. We know that works of art can become familiar features generating a sense of ownership, a sense of place and helping cultivate community identity. Through public art, children and young people may come to love a city and appreciate art more broadly.

The Mount Gambier Railway Lands was successful in attracting State Government funding through Arts SA to deliver two major commissioned artworks at the site. This was a highly competitive process and receipt of funding outside metropolitan Adelaide is known to be a rare occurrence. This funding contributed towards Council’s successful delivery of both ‘Tracks’ (recently installed) and ‘Signalling Change’.

From the outset, this project was considered a major public art installation. Council sought best practice advice from a range of arts bodies throughout the development of the project brief and utilised the contact channels of Arts SA to build broad industry awareness of the project.

Council received 11 submissions, 2 of which were from local artists.

A local project advisory panel was developed which consisted of Elected Members, representatives of the Riddoch Art Gallery and Council administration. Using pre-defined selection criteria, the panel shortlisted 3 final pieces for final consideration.

The three options were presented to the community, allowing feedback via voting booths, email, and Council’s ‘Have your Say’ web site. This resulted in 921 responses and identified strong community support for the two of the three pieces.

In receipt of the outcome of the community engagement, Council resolved that both ‘Tracks’ and ‘Signalling Change’ be commissioned as the proposed artwork.

Signalling Change has been created by Trevor Wren & Danica (Dani) McLean.

Trevor and Dani have been working together as an artist team for the past 15 years. Both artists respect each other’s artistic integrity, creativity, and desire to produce public art that is engaging and constructed to a high standard. Individually and together their professional experience has been developed through many years involvement in the community arts and through numerous public art projects.

Trevor and Dani believe public art should tell a story with impact, have a sense of scale, appeal to both young and old, be interacted with, create discussion, and most importantly be relevant to the local community.

This piece celebrates Mount Gambier's rich railway history by referencing railway signals, crossing barriers and indicator lights.

It's larger than life scale invites visitors, the local community and especially children to explore and investigate railway visual communication through shape, colour and light.

Signalling Change will make a prominent statement both night and day, and be highly visible from a distance through its physical height and bold colour. It will be inviting and welcoming to visitors, the local community and especially children, who will undoubtedly appreciate its scale.

The piece is child friendly and offer tunnel-like apertures through which children can safely crawl and play.

Installation of several sections of the artwork commenced on Wednesday 29/06/2016. Completion of the remaining sections and associated paving works is expected within two weeks.

Public art plays an important role in exploring our identity and fostering civic pride.We know that works of art can become familiar features generating a sense of ownership, a sense of place and helping cultivate community identity. Through public art, children and young people may come to love a city and appreciate art more broadly.

The project was funded by the State Government. The Mount Gambier Railway Lands was successful in attracting funding from the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI) through their ‘Open Space Funding Program’.This program contributed to many elements of the Railway Lands redevelopment, with a specific allowance allocated to the delivery of public artwork and sculptures.

Yes. Council completed a significant stakeholder engagement process which included over 100 meetings and site visits and the collation of surveys of hundreds of participants at events since the opening.

The murals and the nature play sculptures deliver the aspirations of our community. Feedback identified throughout the consultation that these public artworks at the Railway Lands should:

• be delivered by local artists
• be interactive
• be of a professional quality; and
• demonstrate a connection to the site(past or present)

• Local artwork is an investment in our local artists.
• The artwork provides educational outcomes.
• Installation of the artworks extends on the capacity of local contractors (for example the Diana Wiseman mural requires engaging the services of local sign writers ‘Hyland Fox’ to print and install the piece)
• We’re celebrating local excellence and being proud of what we do.

Two significant pieces will be installed on the site from artists Diana Wiseman and Ben Brumby. While each piece is temporary, each has the capacity to be on display for several years.

Diana Wiseman is a local visual artist who has developed acclaim for her work as a printmaker and painter. A former Junior Primary school teacher, Diana was a founding member of the Friends of Riddoch Art Gallery and is a passionate local advocate for the arts. She has exhibited locally every year since 1979 and her work is held in many private collections and galleries. This is the first opportunity for Diana to present her work in such a large scale within the public realm in Mount Gambier. Diana Wiseman is an accomplished local artist and the project created an excellent opportunity for us, as a City, to acknowledge and celebrate her work. Furthermore, the art has been large-scale printed and installed with the assistance by local contractors Hyland Fox.

The piece is of significant quality. As a professional artist, Diana is increasingly building acclaim. She has completed 5 solo exhibitions in Adelaide and is soon to be profiled as part of an exhibition in Melbourne. The creation of the mural required great precision, with her 30 x 95cm print shipped to Sydney to be professionally scanned before returning to Mount Gambier to be locally printed at 10 times its original size. The piece has a unique connection to the site. The mural features the images of birds whose names were used for individual carriages of the ‘Bluebird Railcars’ which provided rail passage for many local residents to Adelaide. This subtle link will be appreciated by many local people who utilised this service and its once significant function for Mount Gambier.

A unique space required a unique process. Over 20 local artists were engaged in a collaborative process which resulted in 6 concepts being presented for consideration. This process recognised the development opportunity for many local artists to extend on their skills in the delivery of large scale murals – something not often seen in Mount Gambier. Successful pieces were recommended to Council based upon criteria matching the aspirations of the community as identified in previous consultations.

Ben Brumby is well known to many people as a local sign write and airbrush artist. His capacity extends from custom designs to photo realist portraits.

While much of his art has been in the automotive and motorcycle scene, Ben has working on a variety of substrates from golf clubs to the large scale mural now displayed at the Railway Lands.

Ben annually works with and studies under world renowned Australian and International artists. He is passionate about the craft of painting and hopes this work will build greater recognition of the use of airbrush as a unique tool for artists.

Ben’s work is bold, edgy and different to anything seen already in Mount Gambier on a public scale. This significantly contributed to the selection panel’s support for his concept.

Throughout the development of the piece, as Ben’s initial concept has evolved, we now see that the old guitar has become a crucial feature in the work. The Guitar is a Barclay – the very guitar Ben’s Grandfather used to strum out old Jazz tunes and Country music over 4 decades ago. Ben describes him as having been ‘a true artist’, stating that music was crucial to him, like it is to so many people - music was both a release and a passion.

Ben’s painting represents the liberating effect music has upon many people. The bright colours which surround the semi-realist central figures (painted in black and white) represent the vibrancy and transportive effect of the music being played. Although the musician is almost faceless, he could be many people.

This is an important work, ambitious in scale, and subject matter. It celebrates people’s ability to be transported through music – no matter their circumstances. It is a tribute to the arts and announces there is something new going on in Mount Gambier, which is exactly what was sought.