Perdita Phillips
Collected Habitats
January 17- February 28, 2025
Perdita Phillips, Maven (Raven), 2024, digital print (negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) with local soil on organic cotton canvas, 187 x 140 cm
Part of FRINGE WORLD 2025
Perdita Phillips, one of Australia’s most deeply-rooted ecological artists exhibits geo-haunting works in Collected Habitats. Phillips draws from over thirty years of attunement to the ecosystems of Western Australia to stage a medley of video installations, sound, photography and three-dimensional works that are linked by strong connections to ecologies of place. The works experiment with the POV of more-than-humans, presenting humans as strange signallers or relegating their presence to the margins. Critical framing of systems of archives, historic and ongoing extractivism and polycrisis are counterposed with the quiet and hidden worlds of others, decentring human agency, with key works addressing the un-forgetting of Australian settler colonial landscapes.
About the Artist
Dr Perdita Phillips is a contemporary visual artist/researcher/writer living on Whadjuk Noongar land who is interested in bringing nonhuman worlds into interaction with audiences. Walking and listening are central to her place-based practice. She won the 2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize for video, recently completing the Joondakammer commission for the City of Joondalup, organised and participated in not-so-round tables for Melange at MAC, and has been awarded two Australia Council Inter-arts residencies.
Perdita Phillips, Detail of Void I, 2024, dye sublimate print, 61 x 34cm
Perdita Phillips, Red Cloud (resumption of nuclear testing), 2024, cyanotype print (digital negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) with local soil on Bergger Cot 320, 57 x 73 cm
Perdita Phillips, Red Cloud (trophy), cyanotype print, digital negative from Woodlines archive with local soil on Bergger Cot 320, 73 x 58 cm
Perdita Phillips, Voids I to VI, 2024, dye sublimate print, dimensions varied.
Perdita Phillips, Behind, before, below, 2024, video, 6min 41 seconds
Perdita Phillips, Breathing Apparatus, 2024, digital print (negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) on organic canvas, 187 x 140 cm.
Perdita Phillips, Breathing Apparatus (dust), 2024digital print (negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) with local soil on organic canvas, 187 x 140 cm
Perdita Phillips, Lakeview (dust), 2024, digital print (negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) with slime dump mud on organic cotton canvas, 187 x 140 cm
Perdita Phillips, Ghost Gum (ghost archive), 2024, Digital print (negative from Dwyer and Mackay collection) on organic canvas, 187 x 140 cm