WYATT MATTISON

"Ha’ K’in Xook"

Woodblock carving

A woodblock carving that depicts the Mayan symbol for “shark” (pronounced Ha’ K’in Xook). Like all Mayan symbols, it is composed of simple, clean linework, and is syllabic in nature.This glyph was one of the first that I came across while researching Mayan glyphs. This particular glyph is used in the exhibition to help explain how to decipher my Mayan-inspired characters. The carving instructs viewers that the glyphs should be read from left to right and top to bottom, just like English texts.

"Unidentified Fins"

Cyanotype print on paper

A cyanotype depicting the outline of an indeterminate shark species. The form is filled with Mayan characters that only become visible as individual glyphs upon closer inspection. Unless readers are familiar with reading Mayan glyphs, the text remains indecipherable. Viewers simply don’t have access to the tools for decoding the symbols. This is meant to emphasize that marine environments are a wealth of untapped knowledge that most people only understand at a surface level.

"Single Use Jelly"

Cyanotype print on paper

An interactive cyanotype depicting a Chrysaora jellyfish--commonly known as a Sea Nettle--with stinging hairlike tentacles. Produced using single-use plastics, the print highlights the danger for sea turtles, which accidentally eat plastics, confusing them for jellyfish. The work attempts to trick viewers into thinking the form is a living creature. The strong focus on line and form, with the flowing shape of the plastics, makes the eye believe that a print created from plastics is a jellyfish.

"ID Spots"

Cyanotype print on paper

An interactive cyanotype print depicting a manta ray, like Unidentified Fins, composed of indecipherable Mayan glyphs that comment on surface-level knowledge. This print also contains my Mayan inspired figures, which can be translated with the use of the proper tools, giving viewers who want to learn more the opportunity to do so. These decipherable glyphs are contained between two easily recognizable plus and minus symbols, which denote the start and end of the translatable sections.

"Flight"

Digital

A digital animation based on a video of a juvenile spotted eagle ray that I filmed. This piece challenges the viewer’s expectations, highlighting the importance of context for individual assumptions. By isolating the ray’s movement in front of a neutral background, the viewer is allowed to create their own imagining of the ray’s background--possibly somewhere in the deep alongside other marine creatures or flying through the sky like a bird or bat.

"Bounce"

Mixed media installation

An interactive mixed-media installation that involves projecting a digital animation onto fabric viewed through cardboard tubes. The animation depicts moon jellies ‘bouncing’ across the screen. The tubes are suggestive of a particular species of coral that provides shelter for sea creatures. Predators can peer through the cracks, but ultimately are unable to reach their prey. The background slowly changes colour, mimicking the aquarium tanks in which moon jellies are often displayed.

"Where's Home?"

Oil paint on canvas

An interactive oil painting of an abstract coral reef based on photographs that I have taken across Southeast Asia. Composed of flat, flowing brushwork, the painting recreates a marine landscape. Hidden within the illusory motion of the work is a series of translatable glyphs inked in clean, sharp linework. The symbols are the decipherable glyph versions of the names of the three artists who inspired the piece, all of whom explore places of personal importance, as I am with this work.