Imagine your lungs are a tree. Every time you breath in, you inspire strength from connection. Every time you breath out, you exhale a forest of flourishing.”
Write a letter to the forests of Southwest Western Australia for inclusion in a book to be bound in the forest, near Northcliffe, Western Australia. Responses in the form of a letter to/communication with the forest can literal or metaphorical interpretations.
Write a letter to a forest: the forest is there outside, over the horizon, cresting the steep hill, licking the valley floors. It is waiting for you to reply.”
Draw/paint/write/print/collage your writing/marks/responses/epistolary/communication on paper 20 cm high and x 23 cm wide (7 7/8 x 9 inches). Keep in mind the 20 x 23 cm size is a square-ish page with bound left edge. All pages need to be able to be bound with the other contributions, into a book form.
Using local materials to make the cover, Perdita Phillips and Annette Nykiel will assemble the contributions and bind the book as part of a site-responsive residency in Northcliffe, WA, prior to the opening of Resonance Gathering: Dialogues Art and Ecology at Southern Forest Arts. The letters to the forest book will be exhibited in the Painted Tree gallery as part of the show November 2025 to January 2026.
Deadline: please send letter and submission details to
A letter to the forest
PO Box 747
Fremantle WA 6959
AUSTRALIA
to arrive by 14 November 2025.
Print and include the submission details form (Word document or PDF) with your letter
Word doc:
PDF:
What you can’t include in your letter if you are sending it from outside of Western Australia
Southwest Western Australia is a World Biodiversity Hotspot and Australia has strict quarantine standards to stop pests and diseases entering that might damage unique animals, plants and ecosystems. Normal artistic materials are mostly OK but do not include materials such as: bark, sticks and leaves, seeds, dried fruit and flowers, honey, beeswax, mushrooms, animal material including raw untreated leather, soil or uncleaned sand
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/travelling/bringing-mailing-goods
https://www.dpird.wa.gov.au/individuals/what-can-i-bring-into-wa
Every forest branch moves differently in the breeze, but as they sway they connect at the roots.” – Rumi
“Deep down, at the molecular heart of life, the trees, and we are essentially identical.” – Carl Sagan
