Transforming Bodies

The Shell Diver, 2024
bronze, silicone
6 x 20 x 9 cm

Sisters’ Bones, 2024
bronze, silicone, steel
25 x 25 x 12 cm

The Shell Diver’s Children, 2024
silicone, Venusta cowrie shells from the Zoila Family
9 x 29 x 11 cm

Matrilineal Sponge, 2024
bronze, silicone, mohair
18 x 14 x 45 cm

The Shell Diver ll, 2024
bronze, silicone
6 x 17 x 9 cm
also pictured in right images is The Shell Diver l

Erin Coates presents a new body of sculptures in bronze, silicon, mohair, shell and other media; almost as talismans to her family’s maritime history, the whale bone yard off the coast of Albany and the so-called ghost specimens of extinct species she has researched. Much of her work across film, drawing and objects stems from her interests in marine biology, free-diving and encounters with ecological and human fragilities. ~ from Moore Contemporary, Nature Reserves catalogue, at Sydney Contemporary 2024

This work was creating during an Activating Collections Artist Residency with ART ON THE MOVE in partnership with the WA Museum and the Museum of the Great Southern. It was made on the lands of the Mengang people of Kinjarling Albany and the Noongar people of Boorloo Perth.