James de Caires Taylor is an underwater street artist, surprising fish and other sealife with his unique sculptures. The ocean floor by the coast of Grenada in the Carribbean now houses 65 underwater sculptures amusing scuba divers and sea animals passing by. His sculptures look almost like well-placed ruins of the Titanic and which gives it an authentic sense of belonging for art outside of a traditional museum. With time the sculptures age and evolve and blend into its surroundings as coral reef forms around them and sea life growing on top of the structures.
Taylor’s concept expands the definition of art and the institutions validating it as well. The ocean as an endless space gives the exhibition an undeniable organic authority. By submitting to the environment and the powers that rule it, man remains humble to mother nature.
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In water, the sculptures look 25% larger than its actual size and because of the varying lights reaching the ocean floor the sculptures are bound to look different as time goes on and also depending on the time of the visit. Everything about Taylor’s work relies on a mutual participation between the art and its environment and as he intent is also for that relationship to be a point of contention for the audience.
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The sculptures are left in the water to grow into its environment and adapt to the surroundings and is in a constant state of metamorphosis. One of the most intriguing yet plain work is ‘The Un-Still Life’ which is a representation of the most common scene on which to base still life paintings. In the ocean, nothing is still, and even this still-life attempt of fruits and a pitcher cemented on a table are subject to change.
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Although most of Taylor’s time is spent on constructing the objects, the complementary work of nature is crucial for the experience. The varying depths of the water level and the rate of absorption and reflection of light against the object naturally give off a kaleidoscopic effect.
One may point to concrete as the primary medium, but in this case it is important to consider the counter-medium which is water. As a fluid, free flowing element in nature the limits of its property are unique. With the ocean as a venue, Taylor’s work does not interfere with nature and instead interacts with it. Requiring audiences to enter the properties of water also brings them into a state of weightlessness suspension from everyday life on land.
-EvelynKim|Follow Me@evelynjkim
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