Brisbane City Council Public Art Collection. Location: Emma Miller Place, Brisbane, Queensland.

Blue Sky View was engaged by Brisbane City Council to lead the complex refurbishment of Poinsettia Riverfire (2016) by celebrated Queensland artist Luke Roberts. Located in Emma Miller Place, the light-based sculptural work forms a stylised poinsettia bloom animated through choreographed LED sequences and holds a prominent position within Brisbane’s civic landscape.

Over an 18-month period, BSV oversaw all aspects of the project’s conservation and technical renewal, coordinating a multidisciplinary team of lighting designers, fabricators, blasting and coating specialists, and electrical contractors. The sloping site posed significant logistical challenges for the safe removal and reinstallation of the sculpture. The project involved the full disassembly of components, blasting and powder coating of the sculptural frame, the redesign and rebuild of the LED lighting system, and the installation of over 600 metres of cable.

Working closely with lighting specialists Digilin, electrical firm Steve Taylor & Co Electrix, and Brisbane Blasting Services, Blue Sky View provided strategic project management and conservation oversight to ensure the artist’s vision was preserved while future-proofing the work’s operational performance. The final result restores Poinsettia Riverfire as a striking nocturnal landmark, and is a testament to the value of long-term public art maintenance.

Delivered as part of Brisbane City Council’s Public Art Maintenance Program.

Photographs courtesy Dave Kan Photography for Brisbane City Council

Conondale National Park, Queensland
Commissioned by the Queensland Government | Curated by Blue Sky View

Public art has the power to deepen our connection with place, and Strangler Cairn, by internationally renowned artist Andy Goldsworthy, is a profound example of this in the Australian landscape. Located deep within the Conondale National Park along the Great Walk trail, this monumental work is both a sculptural intervention and a long-term ecological statement.

Commissioned through the Queensland Government’s Art + Place program and curated by Blue Sky View, the project brought together art, environment, and public experience in a unique and enduring way. Built from hand-cut granite sourced locally, the spiralling cairn cradles a living strangler fig, planted by Goldsworthy himself. Over decades, the tree will grow to envelop and transform the sculpture, symbolising a slow, inevitable collaboration between human creativity and natural forces.

Blue Sky View worked closely with the artist, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and a range of project stakeholders to deliver this ambitious destination environmental artwork. The site’s remoteness demanded sensitive planning and logistical coordination to ensure both artistic and environmental integrity.

Strangler Cairn embodies Goldsworthy’s philosophy of place-responsive art. It invites reflection on the relationships between time, transformation, and the land itself, reinforcing the role of public art in shaping cultural identity and fostering environmental awareness.

Creative Health and the Makeway Lab Project

At Blue Sky View, we are committed to exploring the transformative potential of the arts within health and care settings. Our work in Creative Health, a field that integrates creativity into healthcare to improve wellbeing, recognises that quality of life and self-expression are critical to patient recovery and resilience. The Makeway Lab project is a leading example of this approach.

Conceived and developed by Dr John Waldron through doctoral research, the Makeway Lab is a mobile makerspace designed specifically for hospital environments. The project emerged in response to the psychological and social challenges faced by patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD), a routine and life-altering treatment for chronic kidney disease (CKD), which often results in loss of independence, isolation, and depression.

The Makeway Lab brings digital fabrication tools (such as 3D printers, vinyl cutters, and laser engravers) and collaborative design methods directly into dialysis wards, offering patients the opportunity to engage in creative production during treatment sessions. Activities are tailored to individual interests and abilities, encouraging agency, connection, and self-determination in a setting typically associated with passivity and clinical detachment.

The Makeway Lab was trialled across two Queensland hospitals and facilitated a series of patient-led design workshops, from crafting personalised objects to exploring wearable technology. These engagements not only enhanced the dialysis experience but also redefined the hospital space as one of possibility rather than restriction. Participants reported improved emotional wellbeing, increased confidence, and a stronger sense of community, all key indicators of Creative Health success.

As both a research-led and practice-based initiative, the Makeway Lab has contributed new insights to the field of arts in health. It proposes a scalable, adaptable model for embedding creative capacity into health infrastructure, particularly in settings involving long-term, repetitive care. It also opens up possibilities for creative engagement in other healthcare environments such as oncology, rehabilitation, and mental health services.

At Blue Sky View, we continue to advocate for the integration of Creative Health into institutional frameworks. The Makeway Lab demonstrates how thoughtfully curated, arts-led interventions can humanise clinical systems and empower patients through participation, creativity, and care.

GC2018 Legacy Exhibition

Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre: 24 November 2021 -

The Gold Coast City Council commissioned Blue Sky View to design and develop an exhibition to showcase the impact and legacy of the Games. Featuring images, films and objects from the City collection as well as from Commonwealth Games Australia and other public and private collections.

The exhibition is on permeant display, dispersed along the ‘Street’ level of the Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre, Carrara. The design accommodates the often high pedestrian traffic and the ability to withstand the impact of a stray basketball!

Council Project Manager: Bryant Rollins; Exhibition Design: BSV, John Waldron; Timber Cabinet Fabrication: Ross Annels; Graphic Design: Nina Hansen; Printer: Sun Print; Installation Team: BSV - John Waldron, Susana Waldron, Ross Annels, Jim Martin.

From drinking, smoking and gambling to voting, marrying and travelling — and everything in between — what are the freedoms that Queenslanders take for granted?

Freedom Then, Freedom Now is an intriguing journey into our recent past exploring the freedoms enjoyed and restricted in Queensland and examines what happens when collective good intersects with individual rights. Freedoms often depend on age, racial or religious background, gender, income and where you live. Freedoms change over time and with public opinion.

This exhibition draws on the extensive collections of SLQ to reminisce, reflect on and explore freedoms lost and won in Queensland.

Installation Images: Freedom Then Freedom Now, photographs by Josef Ruckli for State Library Queensland

Co-Curators: John Waldron & Dr Lisa Chandler

National tour: May 2014 - June 2017

East Coast Encounter includes the work of Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and writers to re-envisage the encounter by James Cook and his crew with Aboriginal people in 1770. Cook’s 1770 voyage has become central to narratives of Australian history and precipitated European colonisation of the country. Consequently there are aspects of this seminal journey that continue to resonate powerfully today. Instead of conveying a literal history or a primarily Eurocentric world view, East Coast Encounter imaginatively presents this shared story from diverse perspectives. It also brings historical events into the present by incorporating contributors’ reflections on their relevance today. By enabling this significant encounter to be expressed in multiple ways and from varied points of view, East Coast Encounter seeks to promote cultural dialogue and reconciliatory understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Noosa Regional Gallery: 15 June - 23 July 2017

What’s up Sunshine? is a pictorial portrait of Noosa and the region over the last 50 years. Presenting over 400 photographs and memorabilia the exhibition reveals the many stories of the people and events that have shaped the culture and character of the region.

The exhibition features photographs and video from by leading local and Queensland artists including Glen O’Malley, Mal Sutherland, Judy Barrass, Emma Freeman, Brian Rogers, Bianca Beetson, James Muller, Larisa Salton, Lin Martin, Raoul Slater, Blair McNamara and Andy Staley.
It also features many images from the Picture Noosa collection by press photographers Bill Griffiths and Ian Murray.