Signal Box Program 2022

This project has been realised in partnership with Urban Smart Projects.

Elizabeth Dalton Hooker

Ties 2022

After completing studies in Visual Art and Public Art at RMIT in 2014, Elizabeth Dalton Hooker has developed an art practice situated in the public realm. The artist’s output includes billboards, fountains, signal boxes and murals. For this project, Elizabeth responds to the signal box near the Ringwood Bowls Club, presenting a design composition that depicts a recurring image of strands of grass that have been tied together.

Artist comments

The Bowls Club is one of the area's largest sporting clubs, having formed in 1929. The work serves as symbolism for enduring community ties that are fostered here. The background is inspired by the wattle and native fusca existing in the nearby Mullum Mullum Creek, a significant remnant ecosystem.

Dalia Grigg

Joyously Life 2022

After completing an Advanced Certificate in Applied Design, Dalia Grigg continues to explore methods of creating that are easily accessible in the home environment.

Grounded in the theme of everyday encounters, Grigg’s work was constructed on an ipad and translated into vector format for this signal box.

Artist comments

I love that art and creativity can be found in just about everything, in people, infrastructure, tech, animals, nature and science and that everything is connected. We are often going about our lives so busily that we don’t always get to enjoy the simple things around us...I think the simple joys in life, like going out for a walk or bike ride or trip to the shops and connecting with other people, is what life and community is all about.

Linda R Bester

Nature Connects Us, 2022

Linda Bester is a qualified teacher, professional illustrator and publisher with a strong connection to Maroondah’s natural environment.

Previously, the artist has worked with well-respected botanical illustrator Ruth Jackson in the development of an exhibition at Maroondah Federation Estate.

Artist comments

Nature is a key element in connection with the community. It is at the core of everything, including our existence and wellbeing. According to a series of field studies conducted by Kuo and Coley at the Human-Environment Research Lab, time spent in nature connects us to each other and the larger world. In this work, the tree trunk depicted in the background acts as a metaphor for the way enriches the fabric of our community.

Sandra Schwarz

Our more-than-human community/network 2022

Sandra Schwarz describes how a recent career change from teaching to landscape architecture has prompted a focus on the natural world.

Artist comments

How we, as human residents of a community, relate to the wider system of which we are a part.” The artist describes how throughout the course of exploring the local neighbourhood “I also noticed plants, insects and birds – our more-than-human community.

Now translated into vinyl adhesive for this signal box, the original collage brings together aspects of this broader concept of a community, all discovered within the Maroondah streets onto which they are laid out.

Floral highlights and insect friends that live within gardens, nature strips and natural reserves of the neighbourhood are a vital part of the ‘close-knit’ web of our environment. During these uncertain times its vital to consider human and more-than-human residents as part of our ‘close-knit community’.

Mark Bernard

ParticipANT 2022

Mark Bernard was born in Melbourne in the eighties to South Indian parents that migrated to Australia in the late seventies. A self-taught artist, he has only recently started painting on canvas after an absence of more than a decade.

Mark’s artwork mainly consists of acrylics and paint markers and is heavily influenced by street art. Recently his interest has moved into digital art forms as it allows experimentation with different sizes utilising various surfaces.

Artist comments

The signal box work reflects the welcoming community that is the Maroondah City Council. It’s deep foundation (the heart shaped ant tunnel) is the source of what the Maroondah City Council is about − it welcomes and embraces all participants in the community − offering them to ‘grow’ as one, growth that is represented by the living plant on the surface.

In 2019 the artist contributed to the inaugural Signal Box Program with the work Icy Cold World, located on the corner of Wantirna Road and Station Street, Ringwood.

Blooming Walls

Maroondah, our Home, our Haven 2022

Blooming Walls is a creative duo consisting of Chilean artist Camila Gonzalez and French artist Colleen Morice.

Now living in Melbourne, Camila and Colleen often draw inspiration from walks along the Mullum Mullum Creek.

Based upon the structure of the Mullum Mullum Creek, this work celebrates the links between people, nature and the urban area of Maroondah.

Dotted throughout the work are rainbow lorikeets, wattle and eucalyptus trees, buildings, rocks and shrubs - representing the many different facets of life in this neighbourhood.

Artist comments

The coloured threads that weave through the design symbolize the link between the community and its environment. Finally, the bird’s-eye view perspective invites the viewer to look at their surroundings from a larger point of view.