Award-winning sculptor of Guyanese heritage stuns the world with his breath-taking underwater art
Jason deCaires Taylor is a British sculptor, environmentalist and professional underwater photographer. Born in 1974 to an English father and Guyanese mother, Taylor graduated from the London Institute of Arts in 1998 with a BA Honours in Sculpture.
His permanent site-specific works span several continents and predominately explore submerged and tidal marine environments. His multi-disciplinarily sculptural works explore modern themes of conservation and environmental activism. Over the past 10 years, Taylor has created several large-scale underwater ‘museums’ and ‘sculpture parks’, with collections of over 850 life-size public works.
When asked how he developed a love for the sea, Taylor said: “As a child, I used to live near coral reefs. My parents would often rent a boat at the weekend and we explore pristine islands in Thailand and Malaysia. I was very fortunate to be exposed to such amazing experiences at the early age of seven, or eight. It left a lasting impression in my mind, and made me want to explore both artistic boundaries and the vast sea.”
A prolific sculptor, Taylor became the first of a new generation of artists to shift the concepts of the land art movement into the realm of the marine environment. He gained international notoriety in 2006 with the creation of the world’s first underwater sculpture park, situated off the west coast of Grenada in the West Indies. Now listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic, the park was instrumental in the government declaring the site a National Marine Protected Area. This was followed in 2009 when he co-founded MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte), a vast collection of over 500 of his sculptural works, installed between Cancun and Isla Mujeres in Mexico.
Other major projects include Museo Atlantico (2016), a collection over 300 submerged sculptures and architectural forms in Lanzarote, Spain, the first of its kind in European waters. The Rising Tide (2016 Thames London) and Ocean Atlas, a monumental 60-ton single sculpture located in the Bahamas.
Taylor’s artworks are essentially artificial reefs, formed of carefully manufactured sculptures installed at various locations around the world. Each sculpture is created using non-toxic, pH neutral marine grade cement, free from harmful pollutants, becoming an integral part of the local ecosystem. The cement is highly durable with a rough texture that encourages coral larvae to attach and thrive, while nooks and dark cubbyholes formed of folds of clothing provide homes for fish and crustaceans. The timing of installation is significant to ensure they are in place downstream before the larval coral spawning occurs, yet not so early that other sea life colonises it before the coral can take hold.
His pioneering public art projects are not only examples of successful marine conservation, but works of art that seek to encourage environmental awareness, instigate social change and lead us to appreciate the breath-taking natural beauty of the underwater world.
He has received numerous sculpture and photography awards and was awarded 2014 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy, described as the Jacque Cousteau of the Art world.
An Underwater Art Museum
Visiting Taylor’s underwater museums allows visitors the opportunity to broaden their minds and educate themselves on fields that are outside their daily lives, and experience samples of worlds beyond their own in a safe and non-destructive manner.
“We call it a museum for a very important reason. Museums are places of preservation, conservation and education. They’re places where we keep objects of great value to us, where we value them simply for being themselves,” Taylor explained.
As Taylor describes, in both the conservation and preservation of marine ecologies and in the ability to educate the world about the health of the oceans, his underwater museums have an essential role to play in fostering care and understanding of marine ecologies.
Each artwork is brought alive through its union with the biological marine life that attaches to it and thrives. There is a distinct interactivity between the living organisms and the sculptures. The various forms of ocean life complete the sculptures, transforming them from concrete to textured, living organisms like the figures in Viccisitudes in Grenada; a name that reflects the changing conditions of the planet. In this installation a ring of people stand holding hands as the ocean takes them, coving their bodies with motley of coloured pinks, vibrant oranges, greens and greys. These colours shift with the changing filtered light that shines down upon them creating a patterned circlet on the ocean floor. These changing colours and tones and the gentle play of light are qualities that all of Taylor shares and it gives them a sense of calm and peace, and an ambience of mystery.
On a global level, Taylor’s works reached an audience of over 1 billion over the past 10 years, opening a virtual portal or window to the underwater realm, bringing the ocean into the living room and underlining the importance to urgently conserve it.
As most of the projects are centralised in small areas, entrance fees are charged to visitors. This crucial revenue is then put towards conservation projects and help fund marine park rangers who are able to monitor and protect the coastlines. Admissions and donations for entering the museums also provide a crucial role in providing revenue for marine conservation initiatives and alternative employment for local fishermen.
To learn more about Taylor’s underwater art, visit www.underwatersculpture.com (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
