Strategy
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Strategy
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Intro
Boot Art was launched in August 2022 as a 6-month hybrid public art / wilding art project, in collaboration with the Bone Yard Collective based in Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, and Turrbal Land (Redcliffe Peninsula).
Bone Yard Collective had leased a vintage service station on the corner of Anzac Ave & Sutton St, Redcliffe, on a month-by-month contract pending the demolition of the block for luxury high-rise apartments.
Bone Yard converted the service station into a popular café and vintage record store—an urban oasis blending beans, history, and human connection.
At that time, Redcliffe was entering a phase of urban renewal that flattened and continues to obliterate the region’s unique coastal town character.
Sad to say… but the service station, as of late 2025, has been demolished and the high-rise development is underway.
The Boot Art strategy was implemented with urgency across 2022-2023, recognising that the Bone Yard Collective enclave site was on borrowed time.
Artists were invited to go wild—once a month—working in and out of the boots of their cars within a research-oriented approach, meaning strategies for engagement could be tweaked.
Experimentation & open ended engagement..
The Boot Art strategy employed DIY / BYO tactics across an intermedial landscape/streetscape – claiming space for experimentation, communication, and open-ended engagement in the dawning age of AI.Â
Projects should always demand questions. One of the questions I pondered throughout the project was whether the creation of a work of art is worth the physical, financial, and logistical outlay in the physical world, given that I could sit at my computer and generate an image.
About a month after I created the “Small Car Big Plants” work pictured below, I came across an AI-generated image of a combi van filled with plants on Instagram. The image was luxurious, spectacular, and perfect. I was envious. I could have gone straight to AI and saved myself a lot of work.
But there’s that saying… If you don’t use it, you lose it, and our capacity as artists to be socially and physically responsive needs to be protected and nurtured.
But also, there is the sheer joy and wonder in experiencing creativity as the alignment of the misaligned.Â
That night, as I drove home in a small car overflowing with big plants, unable to see out of the mirrors and peering through the foliage, Walter Stahl, with his 3.5 mtr crocodile jockey strapped to the top of his wagon, honked his horn as he sped off down the highway. We laughed and waved.  Boot Art 4 was done and dusted.
Boot Art evolved into a 7.5 event project, running from August 2022 through May 2023, with doodle tables, community drawing strategies, speed painting competitions, open mic nights, and big painting nights introduced as complementary activities.
Doodle Table + Flyers were introduced in BA2.
Community Drawing Strategies (Exquisite Corpses + Frottage Exercises) were run in BA3 + BA4 Â in collaboration with Gary Warner (drawing exercises) Â & Louise Crompton (on-ground facilitator).
The Big Painting was set up for BA6 & BA7.
Art on Boots was introduced in BA6
Doodle Table + Flyers were introduced in BA2.
Community Drawing Strategies (Exquisite Corpses + Frottage Exercises) were run in BA3 + BA4 Â in collaboration with Gary Warner (drawing exercises) Â & Louise Crompton (on-ground facilitator).
The Big Painting was set up for BA6 & BA7.
Art on Boots was introduced in BA6
Speed Painting Comps were run over BA5 BA6 & BA7 + the BoneYard Birthday Event.
Speed Painting Comps were run over BA5 BA6 & BA7 + the BoneYard Birthday Event.
Open Mic ran over BA5 – BA7…
The Site…
The Bone Yard site provided near-perfect public art—coalface—spatiotemporal opportunities. Open but intimate space with multiple viewing platforms and easy, casual, and random access to the community.
The surrounding area included high-rise apartment buildings, retail centres, roads, intersections, footpaths, thoroughfares, street lighting, and signage allowing artists to work and communicate across the intermedial landscape and within the interconnectedness of the urban ecosystem.
Questions asked…
Can a hybrid public art / wilding art strategy explore and navigate space outside the cultural framework of institutionalized arts practice and what would be the value of engagement for artists and the wider community?
Can artists maintain open-ended experimentation and engagement when government agency-funded projects require cultural filla for predictive public art strategies?
The Artists…
Christopher Cipollone, Erika Scott, Kiki Blundell, Ben Hoare, Jeanelle Hurst, Gary Warner, Russell Solomon, Blair Garland, Em Williams, Louise Crompton, Walter Stahl, Jane E Creative, Karike Ashworth, Genine Larin, Caroline Austin, Katherine Keegan, Walter Baldwin, Tracey Wallace, Layla Le Compte, Leighton William, Dan Webb, Kristian Brennan
The Performers…
Dusan Bojic, Serena Theobald, Nev Branch, Damian Burge, Jimmy Sky, Kellie Peta, Duncan Neil, Alice Milne
The Bone Yard Collective…Â
Heartfelt thanks to Ruby, Becky & Leigh for hosting this project…
Acknowledgments…
Financial assistance for insurance, promotion and community engagement materials was provided by The Regional Arts Development Fund (a partnership between the Queensland Government and Moreton Bay Regional Council).
Boot Art acknowledges and pays respect to the Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, and Turrbal Traditional Custodians, and their elders past, present, and emerging.
Open Mic ran over BA5 – BA7…
The Site…
The Bone Yard site provided near-perfect public art—coalface—spatiotemporal opportunities. Open but intimate space with multiple viewing platforms and easy, casual, and random access to the community.
The surrounding area included high-rise apartment buildings, retail centres, roads, intersections, footpaths, thoroughfares, street lighting, and signage allowing artists to work and communicate across the intermedial landscape and within the interconnectedness of the urban ecosystem.
Questions asked…
Can a hybrid public art / wilding art strategy explore and navigate space outside the cultural framework of institutionalized arts practice and what would be the value of engagement for artists and the wider community?
Can artists maintain open-ended experimentation and engagement when government agency-funded projects require cultural filla for predictive public art strategies?
The Artists…
Christopher Cipollone, Erika Scott, Kiki Blundell, Ben Hoare, Jeanelle Hurst, Gary Warner, Russell Solomon, Blair Garland, Em Williams, Louise Crompton, Walter Stahl, Jane E Creative, Karike Ashworth, Genine Larin, Caroline Austin, Katherine Keegan, Walter Baldwin, Tracey Wallace, Layla Le Compte, Leighton William, Dan Webb, Kristian Brennan
The Performers…
Dusan Bojic, Serena Theobald, Nev Branch, Damian Burge, Jimmy Sky, Kellie Peta, Duncan Neil, Alice Milne
The Bone Yard Collective…Â
Heartfelt thanks to Ruby, Becky & Leigh for hosting this project…
Acknowledgments…
Financial assistance for insurance, promotion and community engagement materials was provided by The Regional Arts Development Fund (a partnership between the Queensland Government and Moreton Bay Regional Council).
Boot Art acknowledges and pays respect to the Kabi Kabi, Jinibara, and Turrbal Traditional Custodians, and their elders past, present, and emerging.
