What did you enjoy most about campaigning? “The whole thing blew me away to be honest. It was an incredible experience. I had so much response, which I didn’t really anticipate. I thought I would put up his Facebook page and get 100 friends liking it, and I shot a video with my friends Tom and Katie and overnight it had 40,000 views—that was pretty mental! I was honoured that so many people let me into their lives, opened up to talk about the things that really concern them. We so often presume that there is a massive polarisation between the right and the left and forget that people are people and everybody has their own troubles. Most people are good people with different life experiences that means they have ended up on different sides of the spectrum. It’s important we have those dialogues to allow everyone to explain their point of view to come to a mutual and constructive conclusion that works well for everyone.” Just a few days after the interview, Chloe is due to begin a community project of a different kind, opening a cafe called Olly’s in Mount Eden, along with her partner, Alex Bartley Catt, and Bryan Anderson (Chloe and Alex also run a digital marketing firm). “The cafe will also incorporate an art gallery, and it’s in the Crystal Palace so it has been such fun working on such a historical building,” she says. “There has been much renovation to bring it up to scratch, to create this beautiful white space for the display of art.” To the back is a “stunning collaboration mural” by three of Chloe’s favourite artists: Bryson Naik, Jed Richardson and Toni Gill.
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I wanted people to have a meaningful conversation about why they should care and about what we should be doing.
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“It’s a tiny space, and there will be an exhibition every month which will focus on displaying local artists, to give them a platform,” Chloe says. “It will be awesome.” —
Words: Jamie Christian Desplaces