follow the water

Follow the water was an investigation into the drains and drainage of Albany (Kinjarling), Western Australia 2018-2020. On one side of the city, open stone drains are a feature of the colonial heart, and drain down to Princess Royal Harbour. On the back side of Albany, an extensive area of swampy ground was drained to make way first for cow paddocks, then (various) rubbish tips and now recreational grounds, houses and hobby farms. Yakamia Creek flows through these industrial/urban/fringe lands down into Oyster Harbour. Both Oyster Harbour and Princess Royal Harbour have had historical water quality issues associated with high phosphorus levels and eutrophication and consequent changes to their biological communities, as a result of catchment clearing for agriculture and past agricultural processing industries.

In previous work in the project I aimed to highlight the forgotten spaces of these drains and their problematic weeds, by taking people on walks along their courses, following the water. Creating situations for individual connection to these neglected spaces was a way of decentring the focus on humans and bringing in the nonhuman agency of ground and surface water, soil and stone, the anthropo-not-seen (de la Cadena, 2015).

My artistic research and the social practice outcomes all point towards the complex web of colonialism, European land use practices and other forms of extraction. This ‘web’ of influences became a conceptual leitmotif of the project.

Perdita Phillips was Residence at Vancouver Arts Centre 27 November to 20 December 2018. The residency involved 12 walks with local people tracing the drains of Albany and a free cyanotype workshop. Follow the water was part of ongoing creative research into the importance of water as an active ecological agent and a metaphor of transformation in imagining environmental futures. It included Algology (SymbioticA Residencies for Western Australian artists and researchers) and participating in the Multi-Artist Studio Residency (Perth Centre for Photography, Kings St Art Centre) during Covid. Artworks were later exhibited in the Australian Walking Artist exhibitions Way Beyond (2024, Articulate Gallery, Sydney) and Way beyond goes wayout (2025, Way Out Gallery, Kandos) and published in C. Bates & K. Moles (Eds.) Living with water: everyday encounters and liquid connections. Manchester University Press. (pp. 176-188).