Never the same river twice

Never the same river twice, 2022
discarded oystershell lids, silicone, river pearls, porcelain, lead, animal hair, human hair, glass
500 x 240 x 3 cm
installed at Pier 2/3 for rīvus: 23rd Biennale of Sydney
photo by Document Photography

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

In this new work Erin Coates explores 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.  

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 changed 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. 

Never the same river twice (2022) continues Erin Coates’ focus on the changing ecology of the Derbarl Yerrigan / Swan River. Since settlement, there has been a two-way movement of matter – resources like the oyster reefs have been 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. As Coates writes:

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.

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.

The artist wishes to thank oyster shucker Jerry Fraser for the discarded shells and studio assistants Robi Szalay, Maleah Schepemaker and Tarryn Gill.

This work was made in Boorloo Perth, on the unceded lands of the Noongar people.