Driving to the Centre of the Earth

Driving to the Centre of the Earth [excerpt] 2012
silent video, installed in a hole in the wall, 10 x 10 x 35 cm, with modified monitor, PVC pipe, latex, paint
duration: 6 min

Driving to the Centre of the Earth is Erin Coates' silent, cinema-style video place at the bottom of a shaft penetrating a wall. We see Coates from behind while she nonchalantly and speciously drives through a corporeal-like tunnel to the core of our planet. Driving her car through Earth's stratified evolution is a reminder that Perth's commuters are highly reliant on car travel and represent one of the world's biggest per capita energy consumers. The tunnel also alludes to the way Australians benefit from mining royalties. Coates conflates this reality with Jules Verne style sci-fi underground travel; that straddle boundaries between practical everyday needs, car culture, and the call to live sustainably. Is Coates suggesting we are at the mercy of our tunnel vision?
~Nien Schwarz, Art Monthly Sept 2013