Forest tells the story of prehistoric plants that once formed vast ancient forests, later transformed into coal, and have now returned to the Earth’s surface as coal fly ash. Much of this ancient vegetation disappeared during the Permian–Triassic mass extinction approximately 252 million years ago and today forms Australia’s coal deposits, while coal fly ash continues a substantial share of the country’s industrial waste. The ceramic sculptures are cast from real coal lumps gathered by the artist from a mine south of Sydney. Using coal fly ash collected from eleven Australian power stations, Yasmin Smith developed a series of glazes that produce a chromatic spectrum reflecting the geological age of the coal from which they originated. Bringing together the forms of coal and ash-derived glazes, the work reveals how geological time and human industrial activity become materially intertwined.

11 glazes left to right:

glaze 1: Tarong (Tarong Power Station, South Burnett Region, Queensland)

glaze 2: Mount Piper (Mount Piper Power Station, Lithgow, New South Wales)

glaze 3: Wallerawang (Wallerawang Power Station, Lithgow, New South Wales)

glaze 4: Millmerran (Millmerran Power Station, Darling Downs Region, Queensland)

glaze 5: Bayswater (Bayswater Power Station, Hunter Region, New South Wales)

glaze 6: Eraring (Eraring Power Station, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales)

glaze 7: Vales Point (Vales Point Power Station, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales)

glaze 8: Gladstone (Gladstone Power Station, Gladstone, Queensland)

glaze 9: Hazelwood (Hazelwood Power Station, Latrobe Valley, Victoria)

glaze 10: Yallourn (Yallourn Power Station, Latrobe Valley, Victoria)

glaze 11: Energy Australia (unknown location)