Dozens of public artworks decorate your Open Green Public Park Lands. APA’s Carla Caruso has been chatting to some of the designers, to learn more about them.

Christine Cholewa and Deb Jones together crafted “The Space Between” public commemorative artwork, located near the university footbridge over the River Torrens / Karrawirra Parri, in Red Gum Park/Karrawirra (Park 12).

”The Space Between” was installed in 2016 to acknowledge the pain of past forced adoption practices for both relinquishing mothers and their children.

Over to Christine and Deb…

How did your joint art practice, CHEB, originate? 

We met working at Jam Factory glass studio. When glassblowing, working by yourself is extremely limiting and hardly ever done.

Very early in the piece we realised it was way more fun to work together, not knowing just how important that would end up being as we headed into the public art realm. Everything from going to meetings together, to lifting heavy things, to the beer at the end of the day was better with two.

On larger projects, we work with like-minded businesses and tradespeople to realise ideas.

Please tell us about The Space Between and how it came to be.

The Space Between was a project we worked on with Relationships Australia and the past ‘forced adoption’ community. The concept is simple.

We split a 17-ton block to represent the separation of the whole. This is symbolic of the separation of people and families in past forced adoption practices. It was to become a space that people could visit and heal.

We added a low boulder to the space for seating. We also added an undulating stone ‘rug’ that holds the words of the community. The entire work is made from Adelaide black granite and the community wrote the beautiful paragraph on [its] polished side.

How many hours of work went into it?

With the polishing of The Space Between rock, we had to polish the rock in an upright position, using hand tools, as it was too large a block to use the industrial machinery available. Not even the workers at the stone yard were sure how long it would take. As it turns out, that was three weeks of our life.

Why do you like creating such pieces?

Public art allows us a couple of things. We like that public work becomes a part of everyday life, and hopefully, we can put some poetry into [that]. We like helping a client realise a project that is important to them and their community. Public work allows us to work on a larger scale, and we have come to really love large stone in a landscape.

In May 2021, you unveiled a Place of Courage artwork at Christies Beach, dedicated to those affected by family and domestic violence. A larger such memorial is earmarked for the Adelaide Park Lands. Can you tell us more about this venture?

Currently, we are working with [non-profit organisation] Spirit of Woman on a project called Ripples Across SA. Spirit of Woman are actively seeking to partner with local councils across SA to give every local community their own Place of Courage. Christies Beach in the City of Onkaparinga was the first project we delivered. We have just finished carving the second stone for the City of Charles Sturt.

Again, we are using Adelaide black granite stone boulders. These are cut with a flat top, and we carve a ripple into the top surface. The ripple in the stone represents the ripple effect that family and domestic violence has on our families and community.

But the ripple effect can also be a positive thing. Acts of care and kindness have a ripple effect through our community, bringing us together to support each other.

For more articles in our “Know Your Park Lands Art” series, head here: https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/know-your-park-lands-art.