Eco-Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor Creates Underwater Sculptures

Taylor’s sculptures change over time with the effects of their environment. These factors create a living aspect to the works, which would be impossible to reproduce artificially. As time passes and the works develop biological growth, they redefine the underwater landscape, evolving within the narrative of nature.

Taylor’s interventions instigate organic growth and transformation. Taylor states, “It’s environmental evolution, art intervention as growth, or a balancing of relationships.” Taylor’s most ambitious work to date — The Silent Evolution (2010), forms a permanent monumental artificial reef in Mexico. Occupying an area of over 420 square meters and with a total weight of over 200 tons, it consists of 400 life-size casts of individuals taken from a broad cross section of humanity and has been designed to aggregate fish and corals on a grand scale. Slowly but surely these sculptures are evolving, a fur of algae on a girl’s cheek, a starfish on a nun’s face, The Silent Evolution reveals the imperceptible changes of nature on human artifice. Eventually this underwater society will be totally assimilated by marine life, transformed to another state—a challenging metaphor for the future of our own species.

Loss and fragility are another inherent theme of Taylor’s work, the impetus behind his creation of underwater sculpture Museums and many of his individual works. He explains, “Over the last 20 years, our generation has encountered rapid change; technologically, culturally and geographically. I feel this has left us with an underlying sense of loss. My work tries to record some of those moments.” The Lost Correspondent (2006) echoes these sentiments. Immersed at a depth of 8 meters in Grenada, a man sits at his desk, his hands hovering over the typewriter, poised in eternal deliberation. He is a forgotten relic, like his typewriter—an antique, superseded by modern technology.

Taylor’s sculptures—a synthesis of art and science—are made with carefully researched environmentally-friendly materials which actively promote coral growth, with inert Ph neutral properties designed to last hundreds of years. Working with Marine biologists, Taylor employs the latest research in creating habitat spaces designed to encourage specific forms of marine life. In The Anthropocene (2011), a life size replica of the classic Volkswagan Beetle encloses a “Lobster City”, designed to attract crustaceans. Inercia (2011) depicts a man on a couch watching television, ignorant of our environmental crisis; yet the television provides a habitat space for juvenile fish. Man on Fire (2009) and The Gardener of Hope (2009) have both been propagated with corals rescued after tropical storms or damaged by human activity. Anthropocene and Inercia both “explore the significant impact humans have had on our planet’s ecosystems and the subsequent effect to future generations,” balancing a potent message with a regenerative purpose.

Although constituting only 8% of our oceans, shallow seas contain most of the marine life on planet earth. By situating his sculptures in clear, shallow, barren areas, Taylor not only replicates the conditions necessary to stimulate coral growth but ensures divers, snorkelers and those aboard glass bottom boats the opportunity to view his works. Underwater, everything is magnified by 25%, light refracts, colors are changed and—as the only light source comes from the surface—kaleidoscopic effects are produced, governed by currents and turbulence. Taylor states, “Taking art off of the white walls of a gallery offers the viewer a sense of discovery and participation.” Underwater, one has a truly multidimensional and multi- sensual experience, free from the confines of gravity and offering a viewing perspective that is both intimate and personal.

Over the past few decades, we have lost over 40% of our natural coral reefs. Scientists predict a permanent demise of 80% by 2050. Jason de Caires Taylor’s art is an example of generative human intervention in the ecosystem, showing what can be accomplished by individual imagination and collective effort. Taylor’s strategy of conserving reefs, opposes the “land as commodity” mentality of Capitalism. His creation of underwater sculpture parks attracts tourists away from natural reefs, allowing them to recover, and taps into tourism revenue, showing how activists might be able to use the system’s rapacious tendencies against itself. His exceptional works are designed “to promote the regeneration of marine life and to use sculpture as a means of conveying hope and awareness of the plight of our oceans” before it is too late.

In 2006, Jason deCaires Taylor founded and created the world’s first underwater sculpture park. Situated off the coast of Grenada in the West Indies it is now listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic. His latest creation is MUSA (Museo Subaquatico de Arte), a monumental museum with a collection of over 450 public sculptural works, submerged off the coast of Cancun, Mexico; described by Forbes as one of the world’s most unique travel destinations. Both these ambitious, permanent public works have a practical, functional aspect, facilitating positive interactions between people and fragile underwater habitats while at the same relieving pressure on natural resources.

Taylor’s art is like no other, a paradox of creation, constructed to be assimilated by the ocean and transformed from inert objects into living breathing coral reefs, portraying human intervention as both positive and life-encouraging. Numerous publications and documentaries have featured his extraordinary work, including the BBC, CNN, USA Today, the Guardian, Vogue, New Scientist and the Discovery Channel, yet nothing can quite do justice to the ephemeral nature of his art; for each actual visit to his sites is both unique and subject to the dynamic, fluctuating environment of the ocean.