100 Souls

100 Souls is a site-responsive artwork grounded in ecological survey. Across a three-kilometre transect of Western Australian bushland, the artist compares longitudinal data to trace the loss of more than 100 ancient Xanthorrhoea species (grass trees) that can live for up to 400 years, destroyed during the 2024 forest heatwave. Intensified by human activity and inadequate climate policy, such extreme events are projected to become more frequent, accelerating fragmentation and permanently reshaping bushland ecosystems.

For the Noongar people, Xanthorrhoea is a spiritually significant species, embodying continuity and custodianship of Country. Its destruction marks both ecological disruption and cultural loss, a rupture of deep time, where centuries of growth are undone in a single season.