Time_Place_Space NOMAD: 5 artworks
1. An early eclogue: Claude, Bruce and the Poussins
Claude, Bruce and the Poussins | 2000 | Eclogue: documentation of site-specific installation | fieldwork |
Artwork, image and photography © Perdita Phillips | multiples | ||
Mt Bruce 1165 m. Digital print from slide | edition of 7 available | $330 | |
book, Mount Bruce | |||
19.4 x 29.1 cm | |||
Reading books in strange places. At 1165 metres Mt Bruce is Western Australia’s second highest mountain.
2. Eclogue: Von Bibra’s alarm
Von Bibra’s alarm | 20/6/2010 | digital inkjet print | environment |
Artwork, image and photography copyright © Perdita Phillips |
eclogues |
Digital print 198 x 297 mm | edition 7/7 available | $440.00 | |
digital print on archival paper | |||
climate change, wetlands, multiples |
This alarm clock was found in the sand on the banks of Lake Bibra, Western Australia. It was probably part of the rubbish used to fill in the west side of the lake to build a playground and barbecue area. It was dug up when new pipes were being laid for the lawn reticulation system. Lake Bibra is part of a string of lakes (the Beeliar wetland chain) dependent on regional groundwater inflow from the east. The annual cycle of filling and emptying over the year is also influenced by local changes in land use since 1829. Groundwater levels have dropped significantly since 1992.
3. Weeding -ing-weeding
-ing-weeding | 2016 | performative event | inimitables |
Artwork, image and photography © Perdita Phillips | fieldwork | ||
In collaboration with 6 volunteer weeders |
variable – 3 hour performance | $3300 | ||
weeding booklet 21 x 14.8 cm | |||
Project: -ing | 2016–2016 | inner Perth wetlands | |
This ecosocial action was part of the Know Thy Neighbour project with Spaced
Weeding is ‘less sexy’ than planting. What does it take to commit to sharing your labour, helping a local conservation group for an act of maintaining and sustaining? Be a part of a care project for the inner city wetlands of Perth.
Six volunteers were trained to work as weeders for the Claise Brook Catchment Group’s Saturday morning weeding session at Robertson Park on 3 September 2016. A weeding booklet was generated. Postcards were distributed to ‘unknowing bystanders’ living or working nearby: those who did not take part in the weeding, but who benefit from the action.
trying to nut out who are the community?/who are communit(ies)?
4. carry me, join me
carry me, join me | 2016 | participatory project with wetlands | inimitables |
Artwork, image and photography © Perdita Phillips | the-nonhuman | ||
In collaboration with 8 human participants and 22 waterbodies |
22 wetlands and 8 participants, 18 water samples (total 40 litres of water) and 22 air samples | $5500 | ||
bottles 28 and 12 cm high | |||
Project: -ing | 2015–2016 | 22 inner Perth wetlands | |
Exhibition: Carry me, | 2016 | 149 Beaufort Street, Perth | |
The work of the participants in this social practice project was to convey ‘messages’ of goodwill between wetlands so that a conceptual network of connections could be drawn. Even though many of the waterbodies were highly modified (and many were reconstructed wetlands), they still deserved to be valued biologically and culturally. The shores of the Swan have been greatly changed and many of the wetlands that once existed through Northbridge are no more. This project conceptually linked these isolated places once again.
This ecosocial action was part of the Know Thy Neighbour project with Spaced
5. we must catch up
We must catch up | 2017 | fieldwork/performance/installation | inimitables |
Artwork, image and photography © Perdita Phillips | network | ||
In collaboration with 29 human participants and Bular Mial |
variable (sculpture 2.5 x 6.5 x 3.5 m) | $11000 | ||
field research, photographs, mixed media drawings, wood, chairs, cardboard, sound recording equipment | |||
Project: both/and | 2017–2018 | ||
Exhibition: We must catch up | 2017 | Paper Mountain, Northbridge, Australia | |
How’s things?
What are you up to now?
What’s on your mind at the moment?
Aren’t times weird.
What do we do about this weirdness?
Would you like to catch up for a half hour chat? On top of a mountain? At Paper Mountain?
It’s been soooooooo long since we last talked.*
We must catch up was a performance/installation that ran 9:30am – 5pm daily Friday 26 May to Thursday 1 June at Paper Mountain at 267 William St Northbridge, Western Australia. In confusing and compromising times, we must take action despite being surrounded by doubt. We Must Catch Up explores the point of talking through doubt and progressing towards action. In this interactive exhibition, participants experienced a time of reflection in a world that needs thinkers and people who absorb and react to the mad auratic flows that surround us. Meanwhile, other gallery visitors were able to observe or overhear conversations of warmth and positive exchange.
I like using concept triangles in artworks. So ultimately this artwork was about three things: the Stirling Ranges – an island of biodiversity wracked with dieback (Phytophthora cinnamomi) – that is represented in the gallery in the form of the paper mountain, undercurrents in society that are found in recurrent conversations, and the act of slowing down and making time to catch up with friends.
*Thanks to the 29 people who participated in we must catch up