Heavy Metal Pectoral Fin, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

Heavy Metal Scapula, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

Heavy Metal Sternum, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

Heavy Metal Rib, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal C2 Vertebra, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Spinal Column, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Skull (inferior view), from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Vertebra, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Scapula (lateral view) from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Skeleton, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2022

graphite on paper

Courtesy the artist

Heavy Metal Skull (lateral view), from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

graphite on paper

Collection of the City of Melville

Heavy Metal Lumbar Vertebra, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2021

Heavy Metal Petrosal (inner ear), from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

Heavy Metal C1 Vertebra, from the series ‘Swan River Dolphin Bones’, 2020

graphite on paper

Courtesy of the Janet Holmes à Court Collection

Alluvium, 2020

digital video, colour, sound

9:30 mins

Courtesy the artist

Filming, props, editing – Erin Coates

Composition – Stuart James

Percussion – Louise Devenish

Scuba filming – Jasper Silver

Freediving filming assistants – Tanya Lee and Gareth Wood

Metallic Water, 2020

cast bronze, porcelain, gold leaf, gold chain, steel

dimensions variable

Courtesy the artist

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and generous assistance from the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries

In these related works Erin Coates explores the changing ecology of the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River, a salt wedge estuary flowing through Boorloo (Perth). Informed by marine biology, historical research and her own experiences freediving in the water there, her work speaks to the ongoing impact of colonial occupation on this estuarine ecosystem.  

Onscreen, Alluvium is a dark speculation on the transformation of the river while highlighting the fecundity and resilience of life forms within this urban waterway. Run-off from residential fertilisers and upstream agriculture have increased the phosphorus and nitrogen in the water, promoting algal blooms and low oxygen conditions. The shellfish reefs were dredged from the river and invasive species like the white colonial sea squirt and mermaid’s hair compete with native sea grasses. 

Her sculpture, Metallic Water, and intricate drawings and are both beautiful and horrifying, responding to the impact of the river’s changing chemistry on the resident population of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins. As long-living, apex predators, dolphins have been found to accumulate heavy metals in their bones. Lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, chromium and cobalt have all been detected in the river at contaminant levels. 

Coates writes: 

The river is changing and it is never the same river twice. And I hope also that we are not the same; we are learning from Noongar custodians how to better care for this river. I know that I am never the same each time I go into the Derbarl Yerrigan. When I freedive there, sometimes I rest on the bottom at the river’s deepest point – where the light barely filters through the algae and tannin-rich water and the silty bottom is cast in dark green. When my eyes adjust I can see things moving about; purple tipped anemone, blue manna crabs, puffer fish. Also rubble, fishing gear, shopping trollies and bottles. Estuarine plants grow over the detritus and black pygmy mussels live on it. It is beautiful and terrifying. 

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and generous assistance from the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries 

Never the same river twice, 2021  

discarded oyster shell lids, silicon, river pearls, human hair, dog hair, glass eyes, porcelain, lead

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and generous assistance from the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries 

‘Much of my work explores the nature of transformed bodies, both human and non-human. In this work, the human body is not clearly visible, yet it is everywhere; dispersed in the water through a thousand tiny changes.’ 

Never the same river twice (2022) continues Erin Coates focus on the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River and the ongoing impact of colonial occupation on this estuarine ecosystem. As Coates describes, ‘Since settlement, there has been a two-way movement of matter – resources like the oyster reefs are extracted from the river and matter is flushed in, via the rubbish tips that used to sit along the river and from run off (from industry, residential and agriculture), resulting in heavy metals, phosphorous and nitrogen saturating the water.’  

Embodying an ‘eco-horror’ aesthetic, Coates work also references a virus found in the river’s dolphin population that is thought to be related to water contaminants. Known as ‘Tattoo Skin Disease’ or Cetacean Poxvirus, it erupts through the dolphins’ skin, causing circular lesions.   

‘I learnt about this river virus just before COVID hit, and then several months later my husband was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Never the same river twice became a surprisingly personal work for me, as I wove in many small references to the body, illness and biological mutation. Making it was a slow meditation on human and environmental health, and the many small healing acts that I try to do.’