They are so inspiring. They are my muse for my artworksJakarta (ANTARA) - Artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison brought along her spiral porcelain artwork called “Confluence” to the US Embassy in Jakarta and sought awareness on conservation of coral reefs and impact of climate change on them.
In the fifth work of her series called “Our Changing Seas” on display at the US Embassy Jakarta, Mattison exalted the delicate beauty of Indonesia’s coral reefs, as she had the opportunity to explore reefs in several parts of the country, including Raja Ampat, Komodo, and Bali.
“They are so inspiring. They are my muse for my artworks,” she noted in Jakarta, Tuesday.
Her artwork featured the unique shapes of coral reefs and displayed the stark difference between the vibrant colorful ones in the center spiral and colorless ones toward the periphery of the installation.
She opined that art is a potent tool to raise awareness on conservation. To this end, she portrayed both healthy corals that are colorful as well as bleached ones, as a result of climate change that has become a major threat to coral reefs.
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In a bid to portray the sense of fragility of the reefs, she used ceramic to build her artwork.
“Ceramic is very fragile. They break really easily if you mishandle them, and that is really similar to coral, when you’re snorkeling or scuba diving, you can kill it very easily. Hence, sharing that sense of fragility is really important to my work,” she explained.
Mattison pointed out that Indonesia is situated in a region called the coral triangle that is more diverse than almost anywhere else on the planet.
“Scientists actually call it the amazon rainforest of the ocean because of that,” she emphasized.
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Reporter: Aria Cindyara
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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