AN INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL ARTIST ERIN COATES · AN INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL ARTIST ERIN COATES Acting Education Program Manager - Minaxi May August 2014 ! Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled

NB: The footnotes are links for further information and research in regards to aspects mentioned in these Education Notes.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL ARTIST ERIN COATES Acting Education Program Manager - Minaxi May August 2014

Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled (Pica climb route map)

Describe your approach to art making. Do you begin with an idea, a concept, an issue, or do you start by exploring materials and/or processes? I work across different media and there is a different process for each. For example my video works are usually quite carefully planned and set up, so the majority of the ideas and development happens prior to shooting. These can be further refined during the editing and post-production stages. Whereas my drawings are looser and while they might start with an idea they may develop quite differently to how I initially imagined. Did you undertake your usual process in making work for this exhibition? How does this work sit within your broader ‘body of work’? This work engages strongly with my background in climbing and my interest in architecture and the built environment. I have made previous work that brings

Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled (Climb with notations)

together these two things before, so yes this project is a continuation of my practice and a body of work I started two years ago. The filming for this project had to be really strategically planned, as I was working with other climbers and parkour traceurs. Also, we were filming very early in the morning. To minimize the elements of physical risk we had to be really organized and prepared. We were also sometimes filming with a hexacopter1. The filming was pretty intense, although amazing fun. It is not until the editing stage that I was able to relax and take time making more considered creative decisions. How do you classify your work?

1 http://hexacopter.us/ “A hexacopter is a radio controlled flying machine similar to a helicopter but the hexacopter has six rotors mounted in an array instead of one and unlike the helicopter, is does not have a rudder. “


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Drawing Video Sculpture Interactives Installation Site-specific Street art What are the art elements & design principles that you feel you have used most prominently in relation to your work for this exhibition. Shape/form Space Movement

Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled (Barcelona)

What effects do digital technologies versus craft/making have on your art practice and in particular your work(s) for PICA? A lot really. The large main structure Thigmotaxis was designed in a CAD program and the components for cutting were prepared using custom engineering software. One of the videos is shot and edited as 3D video, and another has considerable post-production special effects. The bouldering wall was designed and planned in digital software. Only the drawings and cast climbing holds were

made completely separately to any digital software. I use these technologies as tools and mediums. They have open up new possibilities for what is realisable in terms of scale, complexity and effect in my structural and screen-based work. How evident or present are your personal beliefs and values within your art? I guess it’s hard for me to say how evident they are, but certainly my belief in certain ideals around the body and how we use public space is central to this work. The performative acts of interacting with the built environment through parkour and urban bouldering (known as ‘buildering’) change the associations and status of the structures for those who were involved in these acts or witnessed them. It generates a layer of meta-data over urban space and provides a way of re-knowing the city. The work is not trying to tell people to go out and do this themselves, but it hopefully directs the viewer towards new potentials for how urban space is conceived of, built and used, and a way of thinking about architecture that brings the haptic and physical on the same level as visual experience. Outsourcing work to manufacturers has often become a common practice in contemporary art practice, especially when using building, printing or computer technologies. Does this aspect affect your practice and art pieces? Absolutely. I am increasingly working in a way that requires the specialty knowledge of others, and I consider these people my peers and collaborators. I don’t possess all the skills I need to make complex, large-scale work so it makes sense to outsource – or rather to collaborate. At the core is still an idea I have developed myself, but I’m open to how the knowledge and feedback of my collaborators changes and contributes to the idea. I don’t have any issues with this compromising the authorship of my work and instead I see it as a strength and a way of being a part of a community. Collaboration with other artists is also often seen in contemporary art. This can be with other arts practitioners in visual


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art or other creative disciplines, cross- disciplines e.g. science or with industry professionals. Has this impacted on your practice? Yes. I collaborated with a sound designer, architects, engineers, a lawyer, professional climbers and parkour traceurs, 3D and post-production video specialists. How do you envisage your work sits within the context of contemporary art in Australia, and/or in the world? It is hard for me to explain how my work fits within the context of contemporary Australian art, but I hope that it does somehow. I want my work to have relevance to people. Although, I feel it is important that the audience for my work is broader than a visual arts-centric group, and extends to architecture, film and certain body-related fields (climbing, parkour, maybe dance), urban theorists/geographers.

Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled (Hold)

Can you name any artists or other practitioners who have influenced your practice and describe how these influences have impacted on your work? I know I draw from and I’m influenced by multiple creative practices e.g.: Matthew Barney Shaun Gladwell Alex Hartley The Crystal Chain Group architects Film Director David Chronenberg What effect/s would you like this exhibition to have on viewers? Do you think responses will vary depending on people’s social and cultural backgrounds? Do you imagine your work will be challenging to any particular viewers?

Yes I think it will be challenging to some people. Firstly because the videos show acts that are unsanctioned and done in a guerilla-style – getting up super early to climb public art and architecture without permission. Some people will feel this is irresponsible and encourages other to do dangerous things. I think that would be an unfortunate and very literal reading of the work. Climbing is inherently a potentially dangerous activity, but we are experienced, competition level climbers and we know how to assess and mitigate that risk, and the work is not asking others to do the same, but rather to conceive of different ways of interacting with the structures in public space. Secondly, part of the show asks people to interact with the work on quite a physical level, which may be confronting or even excluding for some people. How do you define innovation, and what is innovative about your artwork and/or your practice? I guess my work is somewhat innovative because it integrates another field – climbing – which is not often combined with visual art. It also draws on quite a few technologies and fields of expertise outside of art. How do you think younger audiences will engage with your work (i.e. primary school students)? Hopefully really well because there is physical interaction in it! Although I’m a little concerned people will interact with other parts that are not meant to be touched. Are there any images of other art works (of yours) you would like considered for inclusion in the Education Notes? Please include all image credits here and attach to an email. Other content relating to my practice can be found on my website: www.erincoates.net


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There is a catalogue publication related to the exhibition Kinsephere, so that will be

worth looking at for further information in regards to my work and collaborations.

Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled (Model still – Thigmotaxis)

QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS Questions for students 1. What kind of materials do you notice in the works presented by Coates? 2. What analogies does Erin make between art, technology and sport? 3. How has the artist made climbing into art? What aspects do you particularly feel work as an artistic response

to climbing? 4. How has the artist integrated the works into PICA’s architecture of PICA? What does this say about space,

place, architecture, geography and galleries? 5. How has Coates integrated 3D sculpture and the moving image? 6. What was your reaction to the guerilla climbing of public art sculptures? 7. How was it to be in a gallery that is interactive with varied sensory experiences? How does this compare to

your experience of an exhibition of still images?


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Activity 1: Make a Mountain, Made & Measure Primary School Age: 6-12 Materials Pictures of a range of mountains for inspiration Playdough, Plasterscene or air-dry clay Acrylic/watercolour paint Drawing media Water Brushes Blue/green masking tape or other low tack tape Extras e.g. glitter, spray paint, miniature trees etc. for decoration Mountains are made from tectonic plates2 pushing together, which you will learn in this exercise. PART 1 • In pairs/groups, each grab a lump of Playdough, Plasterscene or air-dry clay. Now mould this into the shape

of a made-up landform (continent).3 • Once completed each person in the pair or group, pushes their pieces together to collapse/join the edges

and form a mountain. Remodel and neaten the form to finish. Let dry. Look at some mountain pictures for inspiration and paint in a range of shaded colours e.g. blues. Can add some elements like trees, props if you want.

PART 2 • Look at the mountain and do the following: • Measure the mountain from several sides by sticking a strip of low tack tape (e.g. Blue masking tape) from

the very top tip (apex) of the mountain to the base. Stick the tape in as straight a line as possible from the top, going down the mountain vertically. Make sure you get all the grooves and notches in the form. Make a mark on the tape once the very bottom is reached. Stick the tape onto a tabletop or wall and measure against a ruler. Repeat again for other sides. This will test your math and accuracy skills.

• Each participant in the group look at and really observe all the forms and details in the mountain. Write down

descriptions in relation to the following: the design; What is the size, scale, shape, pattern, proportion and orientation? Describe the rhythm and line; Imagine - What kind of mountain is it? Where is it – environment, space and place? 4 This is visually describing the sculpture.

• Use the mountain you have made as a model and draw it using some media such as watercolour, acrylic

paints and pencils. Pay attention to light and shadow caused by the different angles in the mountain.

2 “Plates are large pieces of rock in the earth’s outer shell. The earth is made of the inner core, the outer core, the mantle and the crust. The crust has large plates that also fit together like large pieces of a jig saw puzzle around the planet.” Delisle, Lissa (2014) Definition of Tectonic Plates for Kids eHow, www.ehow.com, June 10, 2014 3 Continent: “one of the great divisions of land (such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica) of the Earth” www.merriam-webster.com 4 Adapted from http://www.ehow.com/list_6100689_mountain-crafts-kids.html


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Activity 2: Origami Mountain Build Secondary School Age: 13 – 16 Materials Pictures of a range of mountains for inspiration White or coloured card Acrylic/watercolour paint Drawing media Blue/green masking tape or other low tack tape Decorative or coloured tapes Erin Coates has made her Thigmotaxis mountain structure out of units. PART 1 • Create a mountain using origami triangles and mountains as your units. • Follow these WikiHow instructions to make origami mountains: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-

Origami-Mountain OR

• Follow these WikiHow instructions to make origami bipyramids: http://www.origami-resource-center.com/trigonal-bipyramid.html OR

• Make a combination of both. • Make 10 or more of these in the same size or various sizes. • Use different colours, one colour

OR • A range of shades of card e.g. all blue shades. • OR • White card only • Once made, use these triangular forms as units to make a large mountain form by stacking and placing

together the sides. Use some blue or green masking tape (or other low tack tape) to place in position temporarily. At this stage you can take a photo or do a sketch of your mock up.

• Once you are happy with the structure, unpeel the tape bit by bit and glue the sections together to form the

completed mountain. Alternatively, use coloured tapes very neatly on each adjoining edge to cover the edge and make the tape a part of the design, to highlight the structure. Or use paint to colour each plane (side) of the structure in a different colour at the end.

• If you have enough units, you could make this as a mountain that people can go inside. You may need to

make a wooden structure to hold the structure up from the inside though. PART 2 • Look at the mountain and do the following: • Use your math skills to count out how many sides are on the mountain i.e. each plane (side) that is visible on

the outside, before changing in another direction to form another side. If each side is another colour, then count each colour too e.g. all the dark blues = 5 sides. This will test your math and accuracy skills.

• Look at the form and write down descriptions in relation to the following: the design; the size, scale, shape,

pattern, proportion, orientation, rhythm and line you can see. What do you like/dislike about this sculpture (relate back to the elements in the form e.g. the design. This is visually describing the sculpture.

• Place the mountain in a specific environment. Photograph, paying particular attention to what is in the

image, composition and framing the picture. What does this environment say about the mountain? How does the surroundings relate to the mountain, what context does it give the mountain?

• Use the mountain you have made as a model and draw it using some media such as watercolour, acrylic

paints and pencils. Pay attention to light and shadow caused by the different angles in the mountain.

Documents

AN INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL ARTIST ERIN COATES · AN INTERVIEW WITH VISUAL ARTIST ERIN COATES Acting Education Program Manager - Minaxi May August 2014 ! Erin Coates, 2014, Untitled