liberty lawson

interdisciplinary artist, writer & environmental storyteller

indonesia / australia

libertylawson.studio@gmail.com

over the last 15 years, my career has been consistently shaped by environmental storytelling - evolving after a decade in academic research and science communication, into an environmentally-engaged sculptural practice.

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education

master of science / marine biology - james cook university, 2023

doctor of philosophy candidate - sydney environment institute, 2019-2022

graduate diploma / publishing & creative writing - the university of sydney, 2017

bachelor of science / first class honours - the university of sydney, 2015

portfolio

Symbiologue, 2022

Heron Island

Labyrinth ii, 2021

Goolboddi/Orpheus Island

Corals are alchemists that turn sunlight into stone, turn empty seas into cathedrals of life. All at once, corals are plants, rocks, animals, flowers, archives, islands.

Individually, they are almost too small to see and yet, over millennia, they build structures that are visible from space.

What might it mean to think, design, and collaborate like corals? How can we carry their lessons of non-euclidian thinking, collaborative support and hyperbolic growth into our own future as a species?

Transitioning my creative outputs into an environmentally-engaged sculptural practice has felt like a natural and inevitable evolution, combining my background in restoration design research, with my affinity for embodied and ecological material processes.

Today, I explore the rhythms and geometries of the reefscape through photography, ceramics, blown & cast glass, and metalworking.

Sargassium — blown glass. 10-15cm each. 2025.

Halimeda ii — sterling silver, 3x5cm 2024

Anthozoa i — sterling silver, vintage pearls, smoky quartz, tanzanite & iolite. 5x6cm 2024

Since 2017, I have been working in marine conservation across Indonesia and Australia to design and build artificial coral reefs.

Welded from steel or cast in concrete, these structures act as a way break & a nursery for young coral fragments collected from areas affected by storm damage or boat anchoring.

Read more about this process in an article I wrote for Wunderground

Dome biorock 27

2018

Steel, titanium, DC fuse box

6.2m x 4.5m

Halik Reef, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. Images by Matthew Oldfield

I am currently working with cast glass & iron for my first solo show, a recurring dream knee deep at the water’s edge, to be held at NeoEcho Gallery in late 2025.

untitled

2025

ink on paper, 10 x 15 cm

Liberty Lawson

Indonesia / Australia

libertylawson.studio@gmail.com