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

You can’t miss this 7.5m-high wooden sculpture ”Animals at Play” in the Glover Playground off Lefevre Terrace in Lefevre Park/Nantu Wama (Park 6).

*“Animals at Play” by Anthony “Ant” Martin in Glover Playground, Park 6*

Anthony and his wife, Hatty, run Ants Redgum Gallery in Millicent.

But Anthony’s story is just as interesting as the artwork itself. “I was a B-Double truck driver,” he said. “We carted woodchips from Mount Gambier down into Portland in Victoria. One day, while I was finishing unloading, a gentleman came along, and put a big ramp down. I had my back to it and squashed my leg. It disabled me.”

Anthony now wears a leg brace, uses a walking stick, and has chronic pain. “They keep making the leg brace stronger, so that I can do these sorts of thing. Otherwise, I’d have to sit home and wallow about it. But, nah, that’s not me.”

It hasn’t been Anthony’s only setback in life, though. “I’m good for accidents,” he said. “Back in 1979, my first job out of school, I was there eight days and I actually cut all the fingers off on my left hand.”

This was as an apprentice at a furniture maker in Adelaide. “They sewed a few of them back on, but I don’t have the full grip of it. So that makes it even harder to hold the chainsaws. It’s not the matter [though]; it’s the matter of making the stuff.”

Anthony got into sculpting while he was recuperating from his 2004 accident. The gallery opened five years later. “Redgum is really, really hard. It’s one of the hardest woods there is. I just love the achievement of defeating it.”

The Animals at Play sculpture was the result of him winning a tender with the City of Adelaide. “The tree was there but it’d died,” he said. “They liked my design. So, I got them to cut the tree to the size I needed it, and then, it took me six weeks to make it. The idea I came up with was three koala bears teaching a kangaroo to climb the tree.”

A few years later, the council had someone paint parts of the sculpture. Although, Anthony prefers just a clear resin “so you can see all the grain”. Each year, the pieces need a light sand and another coat of resin to stay in good nick.

*“Animals at Play” in 2015 before it was colourised*

Thirty-six of Anthony’s sculptures are on display around the state. He’s also behind the Alice Dixon Memorial Seat in Reconciliation Plaza in Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga. (The late Aunty Alice Dixon became a prominent figure in the national Black rights movement after her son’s untimely death in gaol.)

Currently, Anthony’s working on a giant gargoyle to put outside his home/gallery. “I’ve taken this great big stump that no one would’ve had anything to do with and I’ve made it into something that’s now going to be there forever.”