Jason deCaires Taylor

Jason deCaires Taylor (born 12 August 1974 in Dover, Kent county, United Kingdom)[1] is a British sculptor and creator of the world’s first underwater sculpture park - the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park [2] - and underwater museum.[3] He is best known for installing site-specific underwater sculptures which develop into artificial coral reefs[4] integrating his skills as a sculptor, marine conservationist,[5] underwater photographer[6] and scuba diving instructor.[7] His works in Grenada have been listed among the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic.[2] His most ambitious projects to date are the creation of the world's largest underwater sculpture museum, MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte), situated off the coast between Cancun and Isla Mujeres, Mexico,[8] and Ocean Atlas (2014), a 5-metre tall, 60-ton sculpture off the Bahamas.[9] Taylor is currently based on the island of Lanzarote, Spain, working on a major new underwater museum for the Atlantic Ocean.[10]

Early life

The only son of an English father and Guyanese mother, he was educated in Kent, South East England, with further studies at Camberwell College of Arts Institute of London, where he graduated in 1998 with a B.A Honours degree in Sculpture and Ceramics.[11] Scuba diving from the age of 18, he became a fully qualified scuba instructor in 2002.

Career

Taylor's early work includes Vicissitudes, Grace Reef, The Lost Correspondent and The Unstill Life.[12] All are located in the world´s first public underwater sculpture park in the Caribbean Sea in Molinere Bay, Grenada, West Indies,[13] and situated in a section of coastline that was badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.[11]

Taylor’s works create haunting, enigmatic underwater scenes, often depicting the mundaneness of life on dry land transported into an alchemic new environment. Instead of the entropic process typically associated with the ocean's corrosive tendencies, Taylor's pieces encourage organisms to grow and affect the surfaces of his creation. They are often commentaries on humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the need for conservation, decay and rebirth.[14] The majority of his sculptures are based on living people who are life cast[15] and whose phenotypical qualities alter over time as they slowly evolve from inert concrete to living artificial reefs.[16] Taylor considers that he is "trying to portray how human intervention or interaction with nature can be positive and sustainable, an icon of how we can live in a symbiotic relationship with nature."[17]

In 2009 Taylor relocated his practice to Mexico where he achieved another milestone: the creation of the world’s first underwater museum.[8] MUSA, the Museo Subacuático de Arte (The Underwater Museum of Art),[4] holds more than 485 of Taylor’s submerged sculptures and 30 land-based pieces. It is located off the coast of Cancun and the western coast of Isla Mujeres.[18] The project was supported and commissioned in 2008 by CONANP, National Commission of Mexican Protected Natural Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas) and The Cancun Nautical Association , officially opening in November 2010.[15]

Works in the museum include individual installations implanted with live coral cuttings rescued from areas of damaged reef.[11] Hombre en llamas (Man on Fire), cast from a local fisherman, stands towards the current with fragments of implanted fire coral in his head and torso,.[19] La Jardinera (The Gardener) is a girl lying on a patio nurturing a variety of potted corals. Other works include El colecionista de los sueños (The Dream Collector), a man archiving messages found inside bottles that have been brought together by the oceans’ currents[20]

La Evolución Silenciosa (The Silent Evolution)is the largest underwater collection of art.[21] It was installed in MUSA in November 2010 and consists of 450 life-size cement people standing side by side on a barren patch of sand.[22] The sculptures evoke both contemporary and historical narratives, forming building blocks which develop into a complex artificial reef for aquatic life to inhabit<ref.[23] While the appearance of the collection underwater is of a crowd of people, from a distance it take the shape of an eye.[4] The collection occupies over 420 square metres of ocean floor; the location was chosen to redirect visitors away from nearby natural reefs, providing these with the opportunity to regenerate.[21]

MUSA is referenced as one of the largest and most ambitious projects underwater in the world.[24]

By the end of 2013, Taylor had placed nearly 700 sculptures around the globe.[14] Works completed in 2014 include Ocean Atlas, located in the Bahamas, the largest single underwater sculpture in the world at 5 metres tall and weighing 60 tons.[9]

Taylor is currently based in Lanzarote, Spain, where he is working on a major new underwater museum for the Atlantic ocean.[10]

In 2015 Taylor installed his first London commission, The Rising Tide. The installation, which sat less than a mile from the Houses of Parliament, consisted of four life-size shire horses, standing as a symbol of the origins of industrialisation but also as a warning for the bleak future it is creating for the world by their representation of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

While the bodies of the figures and horses are moulded from real life, each of the horses’ heads has been replaced by the “horse head” of an oil-well pump – a political comment on the impact of fossil fuels on our planet. For Taylor, the position of the sculpture is particularly opportune. “I quite like the idea that the piece sits in the eye line of the place where many politicians and so many people who are involved in climate change all work and make these damaging deals and policies, yet who are in this state of mad denial,” he said. The middle-aged suited figures that sit on top of two of the horses, looking defiantly into the distance, are also a direct reference to the politicians and businessman who Taylor believes are allowing climate change to continue under their watch.

Taylor added: “The suited figures are ambivalent to their situation – I wanted to create this striking image of a politician in front of the Houses of Parliament, ignoring the world as the water rises around him. And they are sitting on horses that are grazing, taking as much as they can from the ground.”[25]

Conservation

Taylor has gained worldwide recognition as one of the first artists to integrate contemporary art with the conservation of marine life.[26] These underwater artificial coral reefs installations divert tourists away from natural coral reefs that are already suffering effects from marine pollution, global warming, hurricane damage and overfishing, thus providing the opportunity for the natural reefs’ rehabilitation.[27]

Working alongside marine biologists, Taylor uses resilient, stable and environmentally responsive materials. He integrates a coral promoting neutral pH cement and propagates damaged coral fragments found in the ocean into preset keys in his figures.[28] The structures also incorporate habitat spaces for marine life that will promote an increase in biomass of local ecosystems.[29]

The sculptures are positioned in precise locations on the sea bed to avoid contact from strong currents and tidal patterns and are installed at the correct time for coral spawning to maximize their potential influence to the oceanic ecosystem.[17]

Art writer, Dr David De Russo, writes that "the sculptures are a living evolutionary exhibition as nature colonizes, and the sea and tidal movement deform their appearance developing a platform which will promote the re-generation of marine life. They are a means of conveying hope and environmental awareness"[30]

By encompassing bio-restorative and culturally educational properties Taylors work has been categorised as part of the eco-art movement.[31] In 2010, his worked featured in the campaign by Greenpeace for awareness of Global Warming ahead of the 2010 United Nations Climate Conference in Cancun.[27]

Recognition

2011: The Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park was described as one of the “Wonders of the World – Earth’s Most Awesome Places” in a special edition of National Geographic Magazine published in 2011

2010: MUSA (Mexico) was voted by Forbes corporation as one of the world’s most unusual places to visit.[32]

2014: Taylor was awarded the Foreign Policy Global Thinker award.[33]

He was also appointed to the board of the Association of Life Casting International.[34]

2015: Taylor was honoured with the “Scroll” of the Friends of the Anclas Phillipe Cousteau Museum, an award given annually on the anniversary of the death of Phillipe Cousteau in recognition of his magnificent contribution to the field of underwater art.[35]

Major works

Taylor’s website includes images of many of his works. The most notable include:

References

  1. ↑ Cue, Elena. "Elena Cue - Interview with Jason deCaires Taylor". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 Spalding, Mark. "Working Towards Sustainable Coastal Tourism". National Geographic. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  3. ↑ Veselinovic, Milena. "Submerge into mystic realm of the underwater museum". CNN. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "Underwater sculpture park set to open near Cancun". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Underwater Wonderland-The-Deep-Sea-Art" ″Mutual Art″, 3 November 2010.
  6. ↑ ″Wide Angle Natural Light no Strobe, Silver Medal″ 2007.
  7. ↑ Nunes, Neil,Sculpture Park″ ″BBC Caribbean Radio Interview″, 13 July 2007.
  8. 1 2 Jang, Esther. "World's First Underwater Museum: MUSA Near Cancun, Mexico Is Full of Coral Reefs and Impressive Sculptures". Latin Post. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  9. 1 2 Ghose, Tia. "Photos: The Largest Underwater Sculpture". Live Science. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  10. 1 2 Fischer, John. "Home > International First Underwater Museum in Europe to Be Completed by Late 2016". ABC News. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Voigts, Dr Jessie, ″Jason deCaires Taylor & Museo Subauatico de Arte(MUSA)″ ″Wandering Educators″, 19 June 2010
  12. ↑ "Sculptures". Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park.
  13. ↑ "The World's First Underwater Sculpture Gallery". Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
  14. 1 2 Dattaro, Laura. "Stunning Underwater Sculptures Help Protect Reefs". The Weather Channel. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  15. 1 2 "The Cancun Underwater Museum Opens Its Doors to Life". Scuba Diving. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  16. ↑ Vickers, Dave ‘Wet behind the Ears’, Modern Design, Architecture and Art, p.95, London, June 2008.
  17. 1 2 Pavone, P. "An Interview with Underwater Sculptor Jason DeCaires Taylor". Scribol. Retrieved August 2010.
  18. ↑ ″Underwater Wonderland-The-Deep-Sea-Art″ ″Mutual Art″, 3 November 2010.
  19. ↑ Kradel, Kimberly Article in Yucutan Artist-at-large, 1 July 2010.
  20. ↑ Voigt, Jessie. "Latest Works of Underwater Sculpture". Wandering Educators. Retrieved 29 June 2009.
  21. 1 2 Jones, Justin. "Artist Jason deCaires Taylor’s Underwater Sculptures Are a Sight to Sea". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  22. ↑ Carroll, Michael. "Submerge into mystic realm of the underwater museum". Newsweek. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  23. ↑ Gordon, Sarah. "Diving Deep:Mexico set to open the World´s Largest Underwater Museum in Cancun". Mail Online. Retrieved 20 October 2009.
  24. ↑ "There’s An Incredible Underwater Sculpture Colony, And It Sits On The Ocean Floor". Can You Actually. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  25. 1 2 Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (2015-09-02). "Underwater sculptures emerge from Thames in climate change protest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  26. ↑ O'Callaghan, Regan. "Subscribe Contemporary Art, autonomy and the extinction of Humankind". Regan O'Callaghan. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  27. 1 2 Faerber, Fritz. "Pictures: "Bodies" Fill Underwater Sculpture Park". National Geographic. Retrieved 7 January 2011.
  28. ↑ Scales, Helen (2014). "From Polyp to Rampart - The science of reef building and how art can inspire a sustainable future", in The Underwater Museum by Jason de Caires Taylor. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-1-4521-1887-1.
  29. ↑ Geiling, Natasha. "Can Underwater Art Save the Ocean's Coral Reefs?". Smithsonian.com. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  30. ↑ De Russo, David. "Natures Cultivates Creativity in an Underwater World", Symposium Magazine,p.44, February 2008.
  31. ↑ De Russo, David. "Natures Cultivates Creativity in an Underwater World", Symposium Magazine p.40, February 2008.
  32. ↑ Giuffo, John. "In Pictures: World's Most Unique Travel Destinations". Forbes. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  33. ↑ "2014 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2014.
  34. ↑ "ALI News". Art Molds Journal 1 (2): 12. Jan 2014.
  35. ↑ Salinas, I. "El "Pergamino" de Amigos del Museo de Anclas, para Jason deCaires Taylor y el GEAS". La Nueva España. Retrieved 16 June 2015.

External links

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