Yasmin Smith

Flooded Rose Red Basin 2018

Flooded Rose Red Basin 2018 was made while Yasmin Smith was in residence at the Jinhui Ceramic Sanitary Ware Factory in the Sichuan province of China. Segments of bamboo stems were cast at the factory which usually produces toilets and sinks. The plant material was burnt and the remaining ash used to glaze the stoneware objects. Smith’s interest in bamboo was spurred on by recent scientific investigations into the material as a possible source of biosilica for future electric, solar, satellite and phone technologies.

During her time in Sichuan, the artist noticed established plantings of a species of eucalyptus tree endemic to Australia and known as the flooded gum or rose gum. Eucalyptus was used as an ornamental planting in China from 1890, but it was not until the 1950s that large eucalyptus timber plantations were established. Gums are also planted along roadsides and farmland to stabilise soil erosion; however, as they are adept at absorbing water and nutrients, the trees leave reduced supplies for the surrounding agricultural vegetation.

Encountering this Australian tree far from its original habitat, yet deeply embedded in the Chinese landscape, prompted Smith to also create a set of stoneware eucalypt branches — with a syrupy, gum-ash glaze — to be presented alongside the sections of cast bamboo. Bringing together these two emblematic plants, Flooded Rose Red Basin highlights the tension between local and introduced species, and the ecological challenges intensive industrialisation of the countryside and the climate emergency pose to both China and Australia.