When I think of rockpools I often reflect on the otherworldly dwellings in the shallows that emerge only as the waves roll out to sea and the tide is low. On entering Yindjibarndi artist, Katie West’s exhibition at Westspace, ‘Rockpools’, I was welcomed with the comforting and familiar sound of water and waves, nostalgic of summer afternoons on the coast. On further inspection, the sounds of water were transmitted through radios with antennas drawn, placed structurally on metal beams and grates, representing West’s own interpretation of a rockpool. Sparked with curiosity I wanted to understand how such a manmade structure could be reflective of a naturally created rockpool, especially, when I had such a literal representation in my own mind. West challenges this expected visual, reflecting the ‘detritus of colonisation’ with scavenged objects from tip shops in Karratha on Ngarluma Ngurra (Country) and in Noongar Ballardong Boodja (Country) to build her own rockpools.

I was drawn to West Space’s current exhibition Inheritance with the promise of divination; artist Phuong Ngo guiding participants to ask yes/no questions to be answered by the French Indochinese coins of his maternal grandmother. While I don’t particularly believe in fortune telling or any other similarly woo woo aligned practices, I do however believe in using these exercises as tools of reflection to better understand the self. I sat down with Phuong and asked the coins my first question: Am I on the right path, right now? and got what Phuong described as a ‘sarcastic no’ from the ancestors. I’m choosing to take this as their concern for my chosen career path in the arts, including my upcoming graduation from my Master’s degree with no immediate job prospects or leads of any kind. (I want a job!! I’m simply begging at this point!!) But anyway … I asked the coins a second question, and it appears the ancestors seem to think my love life is on the right track, so that’s some kind of consolation prize at least? I guess??