Red cloud (collecting wood)
By Perdita Phillips
Artist Bio
Dr Perdita Phillips is an Australian artist working with environmental issues and social change since 1991. Born in Perth/Boorloo she has long concerned herself with interactions between human and nonhuman worlds. Current explorations centre upon geoaesthetics, speculative futures and the consequences of extraction. She is a recipient of a number of State Government arts grants and funding, two Australia Council Inter-Arts grants and Artsource residencies in Basel and Sydney. Currently she is Tate Adams Memorial Fellow at the State Library of Victoria and Baldessin Studio. In 2023 she was Art on the Move Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Goldfields and commissioned artist for the City of Joondalup Art Collection and won the Open – Film & video category of the 2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize. Exhibitions include 2024 ‘rock love’ (Artgold, Boulder), ‘Melange’ (Mundaring Arts Centre), ‘Way Beyond’ (Articulate Gallery, Sydney) and 2023 ‘CCP x Hahnemühle Summer Salon’ (Melbourne), ‘Collective’ (PCP), ‘The new geologic epoch’ (ecoartspace online exhibition and book), ‘Underfoot: sTrAtA’ (Gallery152, York), ‘Bunbury Biennale: A Cultural Ecology’ (BRAG) and ‘BIRD’ (Climarte).
Artist Statement / Description of artwork
This infamous image, titled Armless Man with Goats from the Dwyer and Mackay collection, has been reprinted using the obsolete analogue technique of cyanotype, with its surface painted using soil from the goldfields region. Overharvesting of timber for steam power and mine props since 1893 led to significant soil loss and dust storms, marking the boom and bust cycles of the gold industry. Rehabilitation and replanting efforts west and north of Kalgoorlie began in the 1970s and continue today. The artist is interested in blending the materiality of place with photography, exploring how the agency of more-than-human elements can be integrated into artworks.