Kinyingarra Poles

Kinyingarra Poles (2023–4) is an installation made of more than 150 oyster poles. The work alludes to Cope’s living site-specific work Kinyingarra Guwinyanba (2022–ongoing), located in the intertidal zone off of the coast of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), South East Queensland.

Oysters represent an important connection to Country for Quandamooka communities, who long harvested them from historic oyster beds in Moreton Bay. “We are oyster people,” says Cope. “My great uncles and aunties were and still are oyster people.”

Kinyingarra Guwinyanba has contributed to the reestablishment of the historic oyster beds that were decimated by colonial over-harvesting in the late 19th century.

Installed in Buhais Geological Park, Sharjah, a site of abundant prehistoric marine fossils, the oyster poles “stand as symbols of ecological rebirth and ancestral homage”, says Cope, “connecting ancient seas with future oceans.”

EXHIBITION HISTORY
- Megan Cope: Whispers, Sydney Opera House, 2023
- Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, Sharjah, UAE, 2025

PRESS
- Sharjah Biennial 16: sprawling emirate-wide exhibition regains its edge, Dale Berning Sawa, The Art Newspaper, 12 February 2025
- ‘Artists are being asked to be vulnerable’: inside the Sharjah Biennial 2025, Amah-Rose Abrams, 18 February 2025
- In Sharjah, Five Curators and Two-Hundred Artists Confront Global Issues Through a Regional Lens, Sarah Moroz, Observer, 18 February 2025
- Sound and Voice Animate the Landscape of Sharjah Biennial 16, Shanyu Zhong, Ocula, 12 March 2025
- Sharjah Biennial offers lessons for Singapore from a desert oasis, Ong Sor Fern, The Straits Times, 5 March 2025