Brett Westfall: I began working on the installation by thinking about what I wanted to say and what kind of emotions to evoke. From there is a lot of sketching and drawing until the idea starts to come to life.

Feeling a peaceful happy nostalgia and a thought of the importance of shelter in safety and comfort.

Finding the objects was done by the great team at Sorry Thanks I Love you.  I gave them the idea of what materials I wanted to use in the installation, and they took it from there.  There were certain aspects that had to be definite, like building the shelter out of found materials and bicycles for the roof. These were very important for me because the nostalgia in growing up riding your bike around, adventure in exploration and discovering new environments during those times growing up, were all feelings that this work was derived from and based upon.

I have worked with found objects before and it is something I like to include when possible. However, this scale and distance is the first time.

The role that LA plays in this conversation is experimentation.

My biggest hope for the new future is that we as human beings can live with kindness, respect, and love for one another while taking care of the Earth and nature. The contribution as an artist and human being is continually trying to convey that we are connected to nature and each other, growing together and taking care of one another through community, empathy, and compassion.

Caroline Ball: Brett is an amazing storyteller and his art feels like an extension of his life: one big, curious adventure.  He moves through the time with eyes wide open – both to the surreal and the haunting – and in bringing these two worlds together his art radiates optimism and compassion. By hosting his installation in a non-traditional setting, we hope visitors get a tangible sense of Brett’s world, while also questioning what art is and where it could and should be found.

Sydney-siders and Parisians both have the privilege of living in two of the most beautiful cities in the world but they worship at different alters: Sydney is a young city and its residents cherish the ocean, the beaches and the huge national parks that surround the city. Parisians on the other hand have the pleasure of revelling in the grandeur of one of the most incredible and ancient built environments in the world. My experience has been that one of the biggest hurdles young Parisian artists and entrepreneurs must overcome is the burden of disrupting this rich and beautiful legacy. In Sydney it’s the opposite – we don’t have the foundation or history to build upon, so it feels harder to get started. This dialogue about building on the old versus starting at ground zero creates a beautiful push-and-pull that I think ultimately motivates the authors of both cities. At least, it does for me!

Given the distance from Sydney to the rest of the world – it takes almost 24 hours of flying time to get here from Berlin! – sometimes it feels absurd to contextualise our cultural landscape within wider global contemporary culture. I think this is our secret weapon: we’re such a small pool, so far removed from what’s happening elsewhere that it feels like there’s permission for everything to be dreamt up from scratch. So there’s a kind of freedom for artists to invent themselves down here at the edge of the world which is very precious.

Our mission is to nurture relationships and inspire moments of happiness – whether that’s through an intriguing installation like Brett’s, a fashion festival like FFWD that we’re throwing in August, or a free yoga class after dark in our space. We hope to cultivate a world that does exactly the same.

My experience has been that safe spaces that cultivate a sense of community really supercharge creative output. Our collaboration with Brett is a great example of that – the conversation begun in the basement of the beautiful Dover Street Market Paris showroom which is a kaleidoscope of artistry in itself.