Perdita Phillips, -Ing (2016)
Artists: Perdita Phillips
Work: -Ing (2016)
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Perdita Phillips’ project explored the overlap of two communities – humans and non-humans. She investigated efforts by local environmentalists to maintain and create new plant and animal habitats in the North Perth and Claisebrook area. Her project had an active focus on weeding and sustainment, on how perseverance can paradoxically furnish change in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty.
Concerned with visual expression of ‘tipping points’ in relation to social behaviours and environmental issues, Phillips asks at what point a series of small changes or incidents become significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
The outcome of Phillips’ project took the form of two expressions.
Expression 1: Weed-Ing
Weeding is ‘less sexy’ than planting. What does it take to commit to sharing your labour, helping a local conservation group for an act of maintaining and sustaining? Ten volunteers were trained to work as weeders as a part the Claisebrook Catchment Group’s Saturday morning weeding session.
Expression 2: Carry Me, Join Me
Phillips collaborated with a number of volunteers to connect the scattered waterbodies within and around central Perth, combining all the waters in an act of carrying, joining and mixing of these important natural and cultural communities.
Twenty volunteers were recruited to collect water samples at 22 waterbodies within the Perth and Claisebrook Drain catchment area.
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