What is the colour of Salmon Gum?

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.

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”.

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.