Martha Street Camp Hill creative placemaking outcomes

The community was invited to share their ideas for the public space improvements for the Martha Street Camp Hill Village Precinct Project during May and August 2021. This feedback helped inform the rationale for the centre improvements and overall design theme of looking to the natural world to ‘find our way’ and encourage interaction, conversation and exchange. The intent of the creative outcomes is to promote a sense of connection throughout the precinct with the local community, improve the centre’s identity and celebrate the local neighbourhood character.

Artist Simone Eisler, who grew up in the area, was commissioned to create Ride with me – a series of three whimsical cast bronze sculptures of local animal species playfully combined – travelling together both literally and metaphorically.

Featured artworks

Ride with me (2022), Simone Eisler

Artist Simone Eisler, having grown up locally, draws upon the stories, history and the wildlife of Camp Hill and the surrounding area – its significance as an early resting place, where people camped on the journey between the city and the sea, and the use of the natural world to ‘find our way’. Nocturnal, diurnal, and aquatic animals combine to once again, guide and connect us, encouraging interaction, conversation and exchange.

Ride with me (2022) is a series of three whimsical, engaging cast bronze sculptures depicting stylised local animal species. An owl with a frog sitting on its head looks and leans in to those seated for conversation, a casual exchange with a duck standing on a turtle resting on a rock, and a koala carting stars and moons is an opportunity to pause and interact.

Playfully combined, the works act as a reminder we all co-exist – travelling together both literally and metaphorically.

The artist acknowledges the assistance of Perides Art Projects in the creation of this work.

The burnished highlights of the bronze sculptures will be accentuated and enhanced by interaction with the works.