Bush Car: The Exhibition

9 May – 5 June 2025
Short St Gallery, Broome WA

Tjanpi Desert Weavers is thrilled to be part of Bush Car: The Exhibition at Short St Gallery—a vibrant celebration of an icon of remote desert life: the beloved motorcar.

For many contemporary Indigenous artists remote community living, equals a connection to country, culture, and family. It also means that valuable resources and necessities are often very far away. The holy grail of remote living is the Australian Bush Car. It must be sturdy, long living, hold many people and many things. It needs to be fixed with ease and innovation, and it is often the first thing a successful artist will buy for themselves and their families. This sense of necessity, innovation and reverence for the Bush Car has crossed over into a growing art movement. This movement has seen artists from across Australia’s vast land create work depicting Bush Cars and more recently, painting and decorating on Bush Cars. Using canvas, sculpture and found objects, often in the form of discarded car parts, remote community artists are pushing the limit of what constitutes a canvas while exploring the everyday realities of remote living, culture, and spirituality.
- Short St Gallery

Tjanpi’s contribution features work from Finke artists, Jasmine Dunn, Jennifer Doolan, Michelle Matasia and Pauline Coombe, continuing this story through fibre sculpture—where hand-collected desert grasses are transformed into playful works of art. From bouncing along red dirt roads to being lovingly packed full with kids, dogs, and supplies, these artworks speak to the heart of desert mobility.

We’re proud to sit alongside 9 remote art centres in this exciting show. If you’re in Broome, drop in to see it in person—or visit the gallery’s website to explore online.