After a hiatus of 5 years, Gallery Boot returns. Embodying a new space at 8 Wood Street in Fitzroy, this new, bigger space will see Gallery Boot through its next iteration.

8 Wood Street is a multi-functional space, hosting events, launches, dinners, meetings, private parties and now exhibitions for Gallery Boot. Having previously been an architectural office, photographic studio, home and gallery in its past iterations, and originally built in the early 20th century to manufacture mantles – a cloak-like garment popular at the start of the 1900s – 8 Wood Street is the ideal home to future Gallery Boot exhibitions.

Marking its inaugural return, Gallery Boot will host a group show of work by practising artists working for the Christopher Boots studio. The show aims to highlight the vast talent and varying artistic backgrounds of staff working in all aspects of the business.

Spanning multiple practices, including marquetry, ceramics, photography, sculpture, short film and furniture-making, this group show brings together the artistry of these makers. To learn a little bit more about the makers before the show opens on the 6 February, read on.

What is your role at Christopher Boots?

Stacey Butler: As the Production Lead, I oversee a team of four, focusing on developing their skills to meet the high standards of the brand.

Heidi Chaloupka: Design Coordinator.

Jase Fabbro: Studio Artisan.

Matthew Mcquiggan: Industrial Designer – I contribute to custom and commission projects for clients, as well as design work for new products.

Tom Mitchell: I started off at CB in the workshop as an Artisan. I’m now the Production Coordinator. So I oversee the production department and the management of all scheduling and purchasing activities.

Alexander Scott: As the Marketing and Communications Coordinator, my role entails a lot of storytelling and distilling of the brand’s values and ethos for existing and emerging audiences.

Bella Shaw: My role at Christopher Boots is in the making of things / Studio Artisan. I’m assigned a project and see it through to the end.

Elysia Stasi: I work as a Studio Artisan at Christopher Boots, which is part of the Production team.

Has working with luxury lighting affected how you think about your practice and art in general?

Stacey: Working with luxury lighting has given me a newfound respect for the delicate balance between precision, efficiency, and craftsmanship in the creative process.

Heidi: It has. I initially intended to study fine arts but chose to study industrial design for better career prospects. During design school, I focused on utilitarian consumer products and expected that I’d end up designing for mass production. However, my experience at CB has revealed that there is always a market for bespoke pieces, with clients willing to invest in unique designs. This shifted my focus back toward handmade pieces and one-off designs and reaffirmed my values.

Matthew: Absolutely – I think the luxury space has such an emphasis on materials and textures, which is something that really interests me in the photography space.

Tom: Since working at CB I always find myself looking straight up at the ceiling when entering a new space. I never considered how much of an influence lighting could have on a space prior to working at CB.

Alexander: I appreciate the refinement of the lighting I get to work with, I see the time and care that goes into each fixture and now carry that across to my own practice. Working so closely with all the departments to see new pieces come to life has also encouraged me to have a consistent practice, always making, tinkering, and ideating is so important.

Elysia: Working with luxury materials makes me more conscious about minimising waste in my own art practice and I am always finding new ways to recycle and repurpose materials.

What’s your art background?

Stacey: I studied Graphic Design at Swinburne, but I developed a passion for interior design, which eventually led me to specialise in lighting.

Heidi: I graduated as an Industrial Designer but marquetry is something I learned through my dad.

Laura de Bono: Non-existent, at least in a formal sense. I have always been a maker but the art practice I have today was completely self-taught. I began teaching myself woodwork out of a desire to create furniture, and then wanted to get more experimental and sculptural and for me this necessitated an inevitable move into metalwork. I like letting my work determine what skill and methods I learn next, so I teach myself whatever it might be that I need to execute the vision.

Matthew: I have an Industrial Design degree, which is how I found my place here at Christopher Boots. My photography practice, on the other hand, is entirely self-taught. I’ve learnt so much from other local artists and photographers, as well as through trial and error, of course.

Alexander: After working in Set Construction and Art Departments in the UK I moved to Melbourne and briefly studied and subsequently dropped out of Sculpture at VCA. Alongside my studies, I restored pieces for a furniture dealer. Since then, I have taken what I learnt in set building, furniture restoration, and art school to feed my own practice.

Elysia: I am currently doing a degree in Fine Art, specialising in Curation and Art History. However, most of my art practice has been self-taught.

How would you describe your art practice in three words?

Stacey: Spontaneous, imaginative, exploratory.

Heidi: Old-world, natural-world, artisanal.

Laura: What’s she doing?

Jase: Snap-shot, haphazard, dirty.

Matthew: Curious, lost, and excitable.

Alexander: Mudlark (found), magpie (shiny), nostalgia.

Bella: Introspective, automatism, explorative.

Elysia: Abstract, experimental, colour.

Jade Malik Prasad: Satire as self-defence.

What themes or ideas do you keep coming back to in your work?

Laura: Beauty, rebellion, poetry, absurdity, the surreal and the sublime.

Alexander: The decay and ornamentation of urban environments, the detritus of a society, waste, reuse and cohabitation. The reformulation of nostalgic symbols or exploration of units of measurement. The investigation of opposing frameworks.

Bella: Movement of time, matter, lifecycles, growth, flow, interconnectedness, importance of nature. Self-expression, brain outlet, hand-eye concentration, forms and colours communicating things not quite discernible but with a familiar language, telling a story, expressing a feeling.

Elysia: I explore trans and non-binary issues as well as mental health issues through my art, but at the moment, I keep coming back to the concept of time.

Jade: Injustice, death, isolation, intimacy, and joy are all recurring elements of my work. Most of my work focuses on all the ways people bring joy or pain to one another at varying levels and what it’s like to be on either side of this.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you are making for this show?

Heidi: A marquetry piece featuring natural elements.

Jase: Black and white photography portraits I’ve made over a 20-year period.

Tom: For this show, I will be displaying a pair of timber Hi-Fi speakers I made. Music is very important in my life and I was looking around for some new speakers for my home Hi-Fi set-up and found everything to look very boring and not reflective of my experience with music. The current market for Hi-Fi speakers uses lots of black and chrome plastics and over-engineered and refined curvy shapes for the enclosures. My speakers consist of primitive shapes and primary colours that give the perfect blend of playfulness and maturity. Timber spheres on the front panels work as both decoration and as a ‘waveguide’ to help disperse sound waves into a space. The size, scale and material of the enclosures also give a sense of being a piece of fine furniture.

Bella: I’ll be delving into my painting, a practice that brings me peace and helps me process life. I hope viewers can feel some of what I’m feeling.

What materials will you be using?

Stacey: I’ll be working with 5mm steel and timber.

Heidi: Wood veneers and possibly metals or other organic materials. I’ll see how it evolves…

Jase: Kodak Lustre photo paper & acrylic.

Matthew: The only certainty at this stage is paper. The materials will change on the day the images are taken, depending on how I feel. The printed medium (paper) will help to create the illusion or misdirection that I hope to achieve.

Tom: American Oak. I love working with timber.

Alexander: Wood, gold leaf, photographic paper.

Bella: Thick paper, ink, pen, watercolours.

Elysia: I’m using mainly plaster and pigments to create these abstract paintings. I decided to explore a very similar technique to a ‘fresco’ which is traditional in ancient societies. This technique involves painting into wet plaster and left to set, basically preserving it forever.

Jade: Video art is shot on 35mm film.

What’s it like being part of a group show with your colleagues?

Heidi: Really exciting. I work with a beautiful and diverse group of people who are passionate and creative and a lot of us have our own practice outside of CB, so it’s exciting to celebrate both our differences and similarities and show our work together.

Matthew: It’s beautiful. This is a first for me, and hopefully for others too. It’s going to be really fun to see how people express themselves outside of the workplace.

Tom: Very proud. I’ve worked with some of my colleagues for a number of years now and have always been inspired by the breadth of talent across different practices amongst the group. It’s fantastic that we finally have a chance to bring this talent to a wider audience.

Alexander: It’s inspiring. Each and every person has a very distinct and varied background and set of skills that they bring to their role. Being involved in this group show is a unique part of this workplace, and seeing everyone’s practices in a shared space for this exhibition is a very special product of working for Christopher Boots.

Jade: I’m always amazed by the talent at this studio, so I’m excited to see the included works and potentially collaborate with other colleagues.

We asked you to curate your own playlist. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Heidi: I made a playlist reflecting what I’d usually listen to when making this kind of work. I think it speaks to the creative state I’m in and what feeds my inspiration and keeps me in my zone. Listen here.

Jase: The songs I chose are tracks I owned either on CD or cassette in the 1990’s. I would have put together a mixed tape with these artists back in the day. All are an inspiration. Listen here.

Alexander: All of these songs tickle my brain or give me goosebumps. They’re jarring, they coo at you and then shout in your face. Listen here.

Bella: My playlist touches on parts of my music taste and reflects what I would listen to while painting, sculpting, or making lights in the workshop, music that drives and gets me excited to do things. Listen here.

What is your favourite song on your playlist and why?

Heidi: Currently ‘In Space’, but that could change tomorrow.

Jase: A difficult question… I think all of these songs have a special place in my heart.

Alexander: ‘Sebastian’ by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. I always get shivers.

Bella: Close tie between ‘Do My Thing’, ‘Smile and Go’, and ‘Hard to Handle’ – all make me feel different forms of being alive and embodied.

Do you have any other exciting projects in the works?

Heidi: I’ve been carving spoons lately, which has been a nice change, as it’s much more simple. And I’m going to start making a little spoon for my baby niece, she’s about to start eating solids.

Jase: I’m working on a photo zine of other works I have made.

Matthew: I think this project will be the first of many personal projects. I’ve not had much of an opportunity to create much personal work in a studio, as I usually do it more casually while I walk the streets or drive around the suburbs. I’m hoping that this motivates me to push myself toward the fine art space a bit more heavily and experiment more with that.

Tom: I’m currently renovating my small apartment. I’m working on compact and functional fixtures and furniture. My dream would be to have it featured on the YouTube series ‘Never Too Small.’

The Christopher Boots Group Show, ‘Hyphaestian Hypostyle’, will run from 6 – 16 February at 8 Wood Street, Fitzroy. It will feature works by Stacey Butler, Heidi Chaloupka, Laura De Bono, Vashti Evans, Jase Fabbro, Darcy Jones, Matthew McQuiggan, Tom Mitchell, Jade Malik Prasad, Alexander Scott, Bella Shaw, and Elysia Stasi.

Gallery Boot is open by appointment only Monday – Friday and to the public from 10 – 4 Saturday and Sunday.

To listen to our artist-curated playlists, head to the Gallery Boot Spotify profile and be sure to follow us on Instagram.