Courtney Mattison: Selected Works

Our Changing Seas 1, 2011 glazed stoneware, porcelain and terra cotta; plywood 180" x 132" x 23"

Artists Statement The exquisite diversity and complexity of coral reef organisms provide myriad opportunities for scientific discovery and artistic inspiration. I am a visual learner, and first began sculpting marine invertebrates to better understand their anatomy and ecology. As my skills developed and my studies led me into fieldwork on the Great Barrier Reef, I began to appreciate both the threats to coral reefs and the ability of art to evoke emotional connections to them. Perhaps if my work can influence others to appreciate the fragile beauty of our endangered coral reef ecosystems, we will act more wholeheartedly to conserve them.

Scleractinian corals – also known as “hard” or “stony” corals – are responsible for laying the foundation of a coral reef. These colonial animals are able to precipitate calcium carbonate from seawater to form rigid skeletons that, over time, build off of one another to compose the vast, complex structures we know as reefs. In fact, corals are so proficient at this chemical process that those within the Great Barrier Reef have earned the title of the world’s “largest living thing.” It therefore feels essential that the medium of my work be ceramic, as calcium carbonate also happens to be a common ingredient in clay and glaze materials. Not only does the chemical structure of my work parallel that of a natural reef, but brittle ceramic anemone tentacles and coral branches break easily if improperly handled, similar to the delicate bodies of living reef organisms.

This large-scale ceramic coral reef wall installation is based on my interdisciplinary study of how art can inspire marine conservation.

This project combines reef conservation science and policy, fine art, and social sciences. I interviewed marine researchers, artists inspired by nature, and marine professionals regarding their thoughts on how art can promote coral reef stewardship and policy change.

Selected quotes from these interviews are displayed on either side of the piece to illustrate these experts’ voices uniting to emphasize the critical importance of coral reef conservation to policy makers and the public.

Prominent concepts that arose from my interviews – particularly those regarding human interactions with reefs – informed the design of this installation. The marine researchers, artists, and marine professionals who I spoke with emphasized the importance of drawing viewers' attention to our relationship with reefs, their fragile beauty, and the threats we impose on them. Our carbon dioxide emissions, overfishing, and land-based sources of nutrient pollution affect the delicate balance of chemical and ecological factors that allows reefs to function. This installation represents the transition from a healthy, diverse, vibrant reef ecosystem at eye level up into a degraded reef suffering from coral bleaching due to climate change and finally algal-domination resulting from overfishing and nutrient pollution. The upper righthand corner depicts a bright red coral branching out from the green algal slime as a sign of hope that with enough public and political action to decrease our cumulative impacts, we can still help coral reefs recover and even thrive.

The design of the piece is informed by interviews Mattison conducted with marine researchers, artists and marine environmental professionals.

Our Changing Seas 3, 2014 glazed stoneware and porcelain 10 x 14 x 2 feet

Artists Statement I love coral reefs for being exotic, amazingly diverse and often venomous. Maybe it’s because I’m small and I respect small creatures that can build big beautiful things, but I feel like I relate to corals – arguably one of the least relatable animals – on a very deep level. That’s partly why I care so much about their demise. Corals are so sensitive that the slightest change to the temperature or chemistry of the seawater that surrounds them can cause total devastation through coral bleaching, death and reef erosion. Without our help to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and over-fishing, scientists agree that reefs may cease to function as ecological cradles for marine life by the end of this century. Are coral reefs doomed to fade into oblivion or will we allow them to recover and regain their vibrancy?

I hope that the idea of one small person creating such huge, intricately detailed ceramic sculptural installations causes viewers to realize just how important reefs are to me, and to become curious enough to learn more about how the ocean is important to them. I also secretly enjoy feeling like a coral, patiently and methodically constructing large, delicate, stony structures that can change an ecosystem. I use simple tools like chopsticks and paint brushes to sculpt and texture each piece by hand – often poking thousands of holes to mimic the repetitive growth of coral colonies. Individual coral polyps precipitate calcium carbonate from seawater to form stony skeletons that, over time, grow atop one another to compose the vast, complex structures we know as reefs.

It therefore feels essential that the medium of my work be ceramic, as calcium carbonate also happens to be a common ingredient in clay and glaze materials. Not only does the chemical structure of my work parallel that of a natural reef, but brittle ceramic anemone tentacles and coral branches break easily if improperly handled, similar to the delicate bodies of living reef organisms.

Our Changing Seas III is the third in my series of large-scale ceramic coral reef installations that celebrates the exotic beauty of coral reefs while highlighting the threats they face. This piece explores the rapid transition that corals throughout the tropics and subtropics are making from healthy, colorful and diverse to sickened and bleached as a result of human-caused climate change, which is putting coral reefs into the proverbial “eye of the storm.� At its heart, this piece celebrates my favorite aesthetic aspects of a healthy coral reef surrounded by the sterile white skeletons of bleached corals swirling like the rotating winds of a cyclone. There is still time for corals to recover even from the point of bleaching if we act quickly to decrease the threats we impose. Perhaps if my work can influence viewers to appreciate the fragile beauty of our endangered coral reef ecosystems, we will act more wholeheartedly to help them recover and even thrive

Aqueduct, 2016 glazed stoneware and porcelain 8 x 8 x 1 feet

Artists Statement What if climate change causes tropical sea creatures to migrate towards the poles and invade terrestrial spaces as seawater warms and sea levels rise? Introducing “Aqueduct� — a new installation with hundreds of porcelain corals, anemones, sponges and other marine invertebrates spilling into the space from a hand-carved porcelain air duct register.

Artists Statement <(Left) This series playfully explores ominous connections between greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, ocean acidification and coral bleaching.

Fossil Fuels, 2014/15 glazed stoneware + Porcelain

(Right) > As her 2009 TED Prize wish, Dr. Sylvia Earle – National Geographic Explorer in Residence and Time Magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet” – stated, “I wish you would use all means at your disposal… to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, Hope Spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet."

Outer Seychelles 2, 2015 glazed stoneware 14 x 16 x 9 feet

I have admired Dr. Earle’s work since my first high school marine biology class. As an artist with a background in marine conservation biology, I believe that art has the unique ability to translate scientific concepts, bring environmental issues to the surface and inspire conservation.

Hope Spots is a series of sculptural vignettes – each an idealized representation of one of the most vital marine ecosystems on Earth as identified

by Dr. Earle.

Micronesian Islands 2, 2015 glazed stoneware + porcelain 17 x 17.5 x 12 feet