Oh, the stories they could tell
October 23 - November 1 2025 : Side Gallery, Brisbane
It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t hold a soft spot for gum trees. They are quintessentially Australian — their silvery hues, distinctive scent, and the soft rustle of their leaves feel like a perfect welcome home after time away.
Culturally, for our first nations peoples the gums represent life, spirituality and connection to the ancestors, linking earth and sky. Often appearing in creation stories throughout different tribes and languages, passed down for tens of thousands of years. The gums have also been a continuous provider of bark and timber for tools, shelter and medicines, as well as providing food and shelter for our native fauna.
These works are inspired by our beautiful eucalyptus trees, each one based on an individual tree, focusing on their bark patterns. They represent us, the women in our histories, families and communities. They are as unique as we are, they are marked by their own colours, continually shedding their skin to reveal fresh patterns, shaped by the environment in which they grow, wearing their scars and wounds as proof of their strength and survival.
They give us the air we breathe, they are our guardians, they are the epitome of resilience and endurance. These trees are individual portraits - each a character shaped by wind, water, fire, human and animal influence and time.
There is something about our awe-inspiring gum trees, they can stand tall and straight, to attention like an army of sentinels or stand alone, all twisted and contorted like an old lady waving her gnarled finger, beckoning you over.
This project was an opportunity for me to push further, to experiment more, to test new ideas and hopefully to craft work that draws the viewer in, to explore the many layers. This is my entire ethos as to why I create, I love story telling, discovering and finding my own visual language to bring the works to life.
@thesidegallery / Photography by @rhiannajphillips
