Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Jason deCaires Taylor has spent more than a decade crafting underwater sculptures that create living reefs, improving the surrounding ecosystem at a time when 40 percent of coral reefs have disappeared over the past decades. His recent pieces including 48 life-sized figures in Indonesian waters and a recently installed an initial phase of his underwater art museum, The Coralarium. Taylor last appeared on HiFructose.com here.
A new museum is being built off of Spain's Lanzarote island- underwater. It is the vision of artist Jason deCaires Taylor, previously featured on our blog, whose ghostly underwater figures have been exhibited in similar areas all over the world, including Grenada, the West Indies, Nassau, Bahamas, and Cancun, Mexico. Over 300 statues are being placed on the sea floor in Lanzarote's Las Coloradas Bay, a UNESCO's biosphere reserve, at depths of 12-15 meters where divers and snorkelers of all skill levels can view them.
To experience Jason DeCaires Taylor's work, you need to have a scuba license. An avid environmental advocate, the artist submerges his sculptures several meters underwater in hopes of assimilating them with the region's natural coral reefs. Over time, the works become overgrown with coral and turn into part of the underwater landscape. Taylor has installed underwater sculpture parks off the coasts of Cancun, Mexico and Grenada in the West Indies and recently created a new work in Nassau, Bahamas titled "Ocean Atlantis." A monumental statue of a crouching woman, the piece is not only aesthetically fascinating but will contribute to the health of the region's coral reef system.
Always searching for new applications for her crochet practice (see our coverage of her crocheted train and crocheted boat as well as our extensive feature in Hi-Fructose Vol. 29), Olek recently traveled to the Caribbean for an underwater installation in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.