Projects
Car Boot Soul
Car Boot Soul
Documentary artist Paul Blakemore will be gathering interviews and objects that carry the personal stories, meanings, and memories of the sellers.
These objects and stories will become an interactive exhibition presented back at the car boot sale. The project will create a unique snapshot of Britains relationships with stuff, memory, and reuse in the year 2026.
This a conversation-led creative project based at Cheddar Car Boot Sale, one of the most accessible and informal community gathering spaces. Building on recordings collected at Cheddar Car Boot Sale since 2024, documentary artist Paul Blakemore will spend the spring summer of 2026 attending the car boot, engaging stallholders and visitors in short, participant-led conversations. Using the everyday objects they are selling as prompts, these conversations explore themes of memory, attachment, reuse, abundance and the social life of community spaces. Each object becomes a carrier of memory, revealing the complex nature of how people relate to their belongings.
Explore
£5,000
Car Boot Soul explores the stories, histories, and community culture of the Car boot Sale.
Aims of the project
This project is designed to meet people where they already are, rather than requiring them to enter formal cultural spaces. Participation is free, flexible and low-commitment, making it particularly suited to people living in areas of highest deprivation and on low incomes, or for others who may feel excluded from traditional arts institutions.
Conversations are informal and shaped by the participants, reflecting the rhythms and social dynamics of the car boot itself.
Meet the artist
Paul Blakemore
Lead Artist
he/him
Paul Blakemore is a professional theatre and events photographer and documentary artist based in the South West, with nearly 20 years’ experience documenting the arts in Bristol and beyond. His extensive portfolio includes work with Unlimited, UHBW, Super Culture, Paraorchestra and a wide range of artists, theatre makers and festivals. Paul has been commissioned by organisations including Arnolfini, Bristol Old Vic, UWE, Watershed, Bristol City Council, SS Great Britain, National Trust Tyntesfield, We the Curious, Design West, MAYK, Situations, IBT, documenting performances, site-specific artworks and community-focused projects.
Car Boot Soul builds on Paul’s ongoing documentary work at Cheddar Car Boot Sale, a series of conversations recorded every month throughout 2025. Originally an inquiry into stories hidden in everyday objects, this project has developed into an extensive collection of audio interviews capturing human interaction, attitudes towards reuse and repurposing, life transitions and artistic pursuits, told through local Somerset voices. This forms part of Paul’s wider body of work, ‘Doorstep Documentaries,’ exploring what people hold dear and place value on in their everyday lives.
