Rate of Soil Formation: two tonnes per hectare per year. Rate of Soil Loss: two hundred tonnes per hectare per dust storm event

 
the burning
Rate of Soil Formation: two tonnes per hectare per year. Rate of Soil Loss: two hundred tonnes per hectare per dust storm event 1991 Installation with documentation of site specific work spatial project
Artwork, image and photography © Perdita Phillips fieldwork
Rabbits 25 cm long. Digital print 30 x 41 cm edition 6/7 available $440
eclogue: documentation of site-specific work. Carpet underlay, cardboard, wood and fire
Project: Rate of Soil Formation: two tonnes per hectare per year. Rate of Soil Loss: two hundred tonnes per hectare per dust storm event 19911992 Quarry, Lake Baladjie, 80 Mile Beach and Toodyay
Exhibition: Degree Show 1991 Curtin University of Technology, Perth
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This work deals with a contradictory aspect of environmental management in Australia: whilst over 80% of Australians live in urban areas, Land Degradation, which is the most extensive, expensive and difficult environmental issue to fix, occur in rural and remote areas. Environmental issues in the hinterland are largely invisible to the urban majority. How do you communicate these issues to predominantly urban audiences?

 

bunny

 

The title of the work is self-explanatory, referring to the average rates of soil creation and soil loss In Australia, and thus pointing to the problems of soil erosion and land degradation. The Royal Doulton bunnies from bunnikin bowls were a signifier of the more complex issues of land ownership and traditional agricultural practices imported by Australia’s colonizing cultures, and consumer demand created in urban markets world-wide.

Rate of Soil Formation: two tonnes per hectare per year. Rate of Soil Loss: two hundred tonnes per hectare event

 

It is easy to make negative and depressing (and humourless) works about environmental issues. The intention here was to create positive solutions for contemplation and action in the work.