What is the colour of Salmon Gum?

 

salmon paint chip
What is the colour of Salmon Gum? 2001 Documentation of site-specific installation environment
and the “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition In Collaboration With: judges, participants and very nice trees
Artwork, image and photography copyright © Perdita Phillips multiples
Paint chart chip 3.5 cm high 7 cm long
Digital print 198 x 297 mm
edition 7/7 available $440.00
Digital print of paint chart chip, Kellerberrin salmon gum (Eucalyptus salmonophloia)
Project: What is the colour of Salmon Gum? 2001 Kellerberrin
Exhibition: Dreaming Alternative Pasts: when the colour of salmon gum was a part of our daily lives 2001 Kellerberrin Folk Museum, Kellerberrin, as part of IASKA Open Spaces Program
colour, the nonhuman, “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition, salinisation, land degradation, biodiversity, to place, eclogue

As part of the Open Spaces residency program at the International Art Space Kellerberrin (IASKA) I investigated the true nature of the colour of Salmon Gums, a prominent species of tree in the surrounding district. This colour changes with the year, with the roughness and pearlescence of the bark, and with the influence of the changing light of the day and the light after rain.

sheep legs?
Dreaming Alternative Pasts: when the colour of salmon gum was a part of our daily lives
2001 Site specific mixed media installation environment
and the “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition Artwork, image and photography copyright © Perdita Phillips inimitables
salmon pink objects

Size variable. Documented with digital prints on archival paper
Project: What is the colour of Salmon Gum? 2001 Kellerberrin
Exhibition: Dreaming Alternative Pasts: when the colour of salmon gum was a part of our daily lives 2001 Kellerberrin Folk Museum, Kellerberrin, as part of IASKA Open Spaces Program
colour, the nonhuman, “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition, salinisation, land degradation, biodiversity, to place

Over 70 salmon pink objects collected from Op Shops were installed in the Kellerberrin Folk Museum to transform the space into an alternative deviation from the past. The work started from when I observed existing photodocumentation of the “Inaugural Pig Auction”, and creating my own “Inaugural Salmon Gum Competition: Thursday March 11 1948”.

Pauline's competition tree
53rd Annual “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition
2001 Performance/Eclogue environment
What is the colour of Salmon Gum? In Collaboration With: judges, participants and very nice trees
Artwork, image and photography copyright © Perdita Phillips inimitables
Performance/Eclogue with photography of salmon gum entries and digitally printed posters Shires of Kellerberrin and Tammin/IASKA Open Spaces Residency Program poster edition 6/7 available $440.00
Kellerberrin/Tammmin salmon gums (Eucalyptus salmonophloia), digitally printed poster
Project: What is the colour of Salmon Gum? 2001 Kellerberrin
Exhibition: Dreaming Alternative Pasts: when the colour of salmon gum was a part of our daily lives 2001 Kellerberrin Folk Museum, Kellerberrin, as part of IASKA Open Spaces Program
colour, the nonhuman, “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition, salinisation, land degradation, biodiversity, eclogue, to place

The 53rd Annual “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition eclogue/performance involved the organisation of a competition for the best salmon gum in the rural shires of Kellerberrin and Tammin. Salmon Gum trees are an icon of the surrounding wheat-sheep landscape when they were the largest, oldest and most dominant members of the woodland communities that were cleared for agriculture. With the current problems of salinisation, the survival and regeneration of Salmon Gums is symbolic of repair of ecosystem processes throughout the region. The attracted 42 entries in the four categories of Best Tree, Best Stand, Best Seedling or Sapling, and Tree with the Most Descendants. The entries were judged by local identities using the criteria of conservation values, cultural values and aesthetic values.