How artist Erin Coates’ ‘wild childhood’ in Albany influences her artworks today

“You never know what you’re going to see there — you might see a shopping trolley with ascidians growing all over it or a school of mini-blowfish or a pod of dolphins”. That is Albany-raised artist Erin Coates giving an excited description of her free-diving expeditions in the Swan River in Perth, where she gains inspiration for her multimedia artworks. She swims among the river’s natural creatures, which live alongside the invasive species that thrive there and the detritus dumped in the water. There is a “creepy, mysterious quality” to the river that influences her artworks, which often have eco-horror elements. “It’s a little bit wild in there, you never know quite what you’re going to see,” Coates said. “It’s a blend of estuarine and marine ecology, there’s a real mixture of species in there and it’s a fascinating place to be in, its really different.” Coates works across the mediums of drawing, sculpture and film, with her projects often focusing on one central idea that she explores in different ways through the mediums. The inspiration for her artworks comes not from research but “physically doing things” — like free diving and rock climbing — passions sparked by her childhood in Albany, where she was born in 1977. “I loved growing up in Albany and it felt like quite a wild childhood,” Coates said. “We lived down near Lake Seppings and we’d spend a lot of time in the swamp, and a lot of time on the coast.” Her parents John and Caroline ran small businesses, and John was also a shell diver, so Coates spent a lot of time in and on the water. “We were a lucky generation of kids in that we kind of ran wild,” she said. “I think creativity, a lot of it came from kind of finding our own fun and being allowed to explore. “My mum was very creative and my dad was very technical, so I think I was very lucky getting to kind of see and understand how things are made, how they’re put together, but also being encouraged to be creative.” That free, imaginative upbringing led Coates to dream of being an artist. “I always knew that I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t know obviously when I was a kid what that meant, or what kind of pathway you need to take,” she said. After attending Albany Primary School and Albany Senior High School, Coates boarded at Penrhos College in Perth from the age of 15, before studying fine arts at Curtin University. “It’s not an easy thing to decide you want to be an artist, because it’s not like anyone’s going to give you a job to be an artist,” she said. After finishing her degree, she worked as an English teacher in Europe, before returning to Perth and undertaking an Honours degree at Curtin. Then, she moved to Canada to further her studies with a Master of Fine Arts at the University of British Colombia Coates returned to Perth and worked as a university lecturer, then as the Fremantle Arts Centre as a curator, while she continued to create her own art on the side. She has created several works that have drawn direct inspiration from Albany, in partnership with artist Anna Nazzari, including the 2015 film Cetaphobia. The 2017 short film Open Water: The Offering was based on an 1965 incident on the whale chaser ship The Cheynes III when a whaler lost his leg. Coates and Nazzari also learned to use scrimshaws to carve contemporary artworks into sperm whale teeth left over from Albany’s whaling days. Last year, Coates made the transition to being a full-time artist. Her artwork is now on display as part of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, which has a river theme. The Biennale’s curators approached Coates to display her work Never the Same River Twice, inspired by her free-diving in the Swan River, and the impact of colonisation on the river, known as the Derbarl Yerrigan in the Whadjuk Noongar language. “It was just the right work at the right time,” she said. The piece de resistance is a ceiling-to-floor waterfall installation of oyster shells, some with gothic, human-like additions among them. It is another piece that Coates can trace back to her childhood in Albany, where such shells littered the beaches she grew up on. “I definitely think it has influenced my work, being able to grow up in such a beautiful place,” she said.