Debra Phillips, Model of the Cemetery of the city of Chaux, Arc-et-Senans, Musée Ledoux, 2015/2024. Courtesy: the artist and Void_Melbourne, Melbourne.

In Saline, Debra Phillips explores connections between historical utopian thinking and responses to current ecological crises. This new series of photographs builds upon her long-term interest in the way people have imagined, described and created versions of the ideal society.

Inspired by a visit to architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s ideal factory town, the Royal Saltworks of Chaux at Arc-et-Senans, France (built in 1775-79), Saline documents temporary summer gardens—designed in collaboration with school children—surrounding the historic sandstone buildings of the Saltworks.

Today, work continues on Ledoux’s never-completed circular town design, not with further buildings but more gardens, focused upon promoting biodiversity and education. Phillips’ images depict a changing, seasonal environment, drawing attention to issues of climate change and collapsing ecologies. Slipping nature into a saturated artificial realm, these images occupy a blurred space between photography and data visualisation.

Supported by the City of Melbourne Arts Grants.

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