Artist Of The Week - Jason de Caires Taylor
Jason de Caires Taylor is that creator of the world’s first underwater sculpture park. His work highlights the relationship between contemporary art and the natural world, with the aim to increase hope, awareness and optimism related to nature’s state.
Jason (1974-) grew up in Canterbury, eastern England, with much of his early life spent in Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. In 1988, he graduated with a B.A. Honors in Sculpture and Ceramics and is also a qualified diving instructor. He wanted to emerge his two passions together, and so he came up with the idea of the underwater sculpture park. To build the park, he had to sell his house to come up with the funds. In 2006, the Caribbean island of Grenada approved his idea, which includes some sculptures that tell the folk stories of the island.
I experienced three stages of emotions when looking at Taylor’s work. At first they appear eerie and haunting, but then they evoked a sadness, a loneliness. Lastly, there was a feeling of connectedness. That amongst this vast underwater scape, which is foreign and mysterious to us, we stand together, all alone but linked, because ultimately, we’re all the same as each other. And whether or not we belong there, it’s quite obvious that we’re all so small compared to the earth and water that we inhabit. There’s something greater than ourselves and that’s what links us together.
Fall From Grace
Inevitable
Tam - CC
To get an idea of what it would be like to come across his work while swimming through the ocean (in the Caribbean island of Grenada), take a look at this video. It’s quite ghostly but definitely fascinating. Taylor intends to create more underwater sculptures across the globe. He also made a series of sculptures on land, and you can check them out here.
What do you think? Do his pieces make your heart pound with excitement? How do they make you feel…?
Big love,
August 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I think its eerie in a beautiful way… though I would definitely get the creeps swimming through it! I love ‘Inevitable’, that’s my favourite!
Taras last blog post..What I Wore 15.8.08
August 15th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
August 16th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Thank you for this article - it’s fascinating. I’ve already heard of this artist before but I never saw several sculptures, as shown here. It’s a bit scary but also very peaceful - I love the sea so it hardly scares me. I particularly appreciate the last picture, since the woman starring at the stone faces looks like a mermaid!
Did you see the movie “The Piano”? This sculptures make me think of one of the last scenes of this movie.
This blog’s really interesting, thank you once more!
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August 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Haunting! I once went snorkeling in the Pennecamp reefs in the Florida Keys where they had a statue of Jesus on the ocean floor. I forget why it was there–an old memorial for fallen sailors or something?
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August 18th, 2008 at 12:09 am
What AMAZING imagery! Thanks for sharing!
August 18th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Thank you, Sarah-Lou, for your lovely words!
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Annie Spandex - Holy moley! Seeing Jesus on the bottom of the ocean would be scary! LOL. You’d think you were having some sort of divine intervention
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Slacker Chic - You’re welcome, lovely!