Coorparoo Junction creative placemaking outcomes
The community was invited to share their ideas for the public space improvements for the Coorparoo Junction Village Precinct Project during May 2021. The feedback helped inform the rationale for improvements to the centre and overall design theme of 'Everyone’s Home' which encourages a holistic approach of what makes a home, from the perspective of people, plants, and animals in Coorparoo.
The intent of the creative outcome is to promote a sense of connection, improve the centre's identity and celebrate local neighbourhood character at the unique opportunity at Tarlina Lane. The laneway creative outcome were further informed by artist-facilitated student workshops held with the Coorparoo State School in late 2021. This was an opportunity for an exchange of ideas and skills with the local school community.
Featured artwork - New Bloom (2022) Chantal Fraser
A local artist, Chantal Fraser has been commissioned for the creative outcome, a pavement surface treatment artwork, for the converted Tarlina Lane shared zone.
The artwork New Bloom welcomes everyone who traverses Tarlina Lane with a vibrant, scattered botanic garland, forming an imaginative hybrid garden. It reflects connection and stewardship with the environment with which we coexist.
The creation of New Bloom motifs involved a creative workshop with students from Coorparoo State School, who explored creating ‘hybrid creatures’ made from recycled materials and trinkets that held memory.
The visual and conceptual outcomes of the workshop informed the design of New Bloom, The painted road mural artwork represents a stimulating social environment where people come together, sharing their past experiences and creating a community where all beings feel safe and at home.
You can also watch this video on Council's YouTube channel.
Video transcript
Video transcript
My name is Chantal Fraser and I'm a multi-media artist.
Hello, everyone. I am here to run a workshop with you because we have a really exciting, cool public artwork that's happening down in the laneway next year.
So I was engaged by Brisbane City Council to create a design for Tarlina Lane, which is adjacent to Coorparoo State School. Because of the location and the way the students passed through the laneway to and from the school.
It was really important. The children were part of the creative process.
We're going to make really fantastic, imaginative, creative things that we can wear. What's really wonderful about people is that we are made up of so many different things.
The materials that were used in the workshop were a collection of some materials that I had. The children were also invited to bring in trinkets or pieces of material or objects that they had at home.
So collage was good because it was quick and we needed something that they could feel like they were creative and imaginative almost immediately. But it also meant that it was a resolved object that they could also take home. I learned a lot, actually, just from watching them interact and without judgment and without any kind of preconceived ideas of what a creature should look like.
That open ended imaginative play was actually very inspiring.
So after the workshop, when I received the images of the headdresses, I thought that they had really interesting textures, contrast and forms. And so I really wanted to capture what that care and imagination and play looks like. And I started to repeat them or maybe cut portions up and turn them upside down or turn them on their side.
And I photographed these and I created digital files from them so I could actually play with them on the computer to see what they looked like in a kind of flat aerial view. And then from that process, I then traced them with sketch paper on my computer so I could then make them into graphic shapes.
I loved that one. I really did. I could imagine a bouquet of that made me think of a flower garland or a flower lay and how we can acknowledge someone and do it with ritual. And I thought that because the students used laneway to go to school more than the main road, what if we approached the design as being a huge scattering of flowers, welcoming people into that laneway and also waving goodbye to them as they leave the laneway?
Oh it’s a street party. I love it. It's so appropriate. I think it matches the artwork and I think it's a beautiful community to be part of. I'm really happy with the result. I think it's fabulous. The colours are so vibrant. We worked with a supplier called Designer Pave who were amazing. They actually stayed with me and mixed the colours specifically because everything we design on computers is really different when it's applied to the actual surface. But I think it's a really successful outcome and I hope to see laneways or road surfaces all across Brisbane activated with these sorts of changing murals.
I really hope the children feel excited when they encounter the laneway on their way to school and when they leave. Community is about gathering and accepting everybody and having fun and can be created anywhere.
Doesn't have to be attached to a particular permanent site. So yes, it's wonderful.
Image gallery
