Coral Connections

“Coral Connections” hangs in the double-height lobby of the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo, greeting residents and visitors who come to conduct county business in the Upper Keys. Artist Kevin Paulsen created the suspended sculpture as a meditation on the interconnected systems, both natural and civic, that sustain island communities.

The installation consists of more than forty individual elements of cast glass and brushed aluminum, suspended on stainless steel cables from the lobby ceiling. The glass components were cast in molds taken from actual coral specimens collected with permits from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, giving the work a direct material connection to the reef ecosystem it represents.

When sunlight enters through the lobby’s clerestory windows, the cast glass elements project colored light patterns onto the floor and walls below, creating an effect reminiscent of light filtering through shallow tropical water. Paulsen has described the piece as a reminder that the health of the Keys community and the health of the reef are fundamentally linked. The work was funded through the Art in Public Places allocation for the government center’s 2016 renovation.