Lovebox
Installation | Video

Anti-terrorist bollards have punctuated city streets across Melbourne and Sydney since 2017 as a protective measure to prevent vehicles ploughing into pedestrians. The bollards were installed following an increase in fear and anxiety about public safety following vehicular terror attacks in Melbourne, London, Berlin and Nice.

The Lovebox project sought to disrupt the atmosphere of fear that surrounded the installation of these bollards by giving them a new association: love. Building on ideas of community, safety and protection, the installation encourages people and communities to engage and interact with the tactile experience. The installation’s evocative colour and unfiltered expression of positivity serves as a foil to the drab, corporate background against which it is set.

Former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle AC, told ABC Radio that the bollard art – dubbed boll-art – was a prime example of “creative Melbourne people doing what creative Melbourne people do.”