Perdita Phillips
The Sixth Shore (digital image from project of the same name, 2009-2013)
Houdini the bowerbird repairs his bower (Green, Grey or Dull Silver project, 2007)
Geologist series (digital prints on archival paper, 2006)
biodiversity network (2010)
The world has no shortage of things (the world of the Great Bowerbird) (sound installation, 2007)
Green, Grey or Dull Silver project (2007-2008)
Bird in the Hand (waders) ink on paper (2010)
In Vetland (30 inkjet prints, scratchboard drawings, and mixed media on inkjet prints, 2009)
Macropus eugenii (tammar wallaby) (floor installation with GPS data from Tammar Wallabies, 2006)
Perdita Phillips is an Australian environmental artist working across mixed media installation, walking, sound, site-specific environmental projects, performance, sculpture and photography. Her projects all have an underlying thread connecting them to the questions of how to engage with aspects of nature — and transform the relationship between humans and nonhumans.
Phillips’ works reflect an ongoing investigation into ecosystemic thinking. She have investigated land degradation to create installations (1991), written an encyclopaedia about termites (2000), created the 53rd Annual “Where is the Best Salmon Gum?” Competition for the Shires of Kellerberrin and Tammin (2001), sound recorded conversations with geologists and made work with bowerbirds (2007-2008). Recently Phillips has become increasing concerned with how to represent complexity in the environment and encourage the viewer to walk away more confident about facing climatic uncertainties:
“For me, attention on the gaps in between things seems to signal a change in my practice to a deeper focus on the porosity of life and on society’s need for flexibility to accommodate the changes that are facing us.”