QUALIFICATIONS
2001 PADI Dive master Scuba Instructor, Specialty Instructor – Underwater Naturalist, Australia 1998 Certificate in Management Studies, London College of International Business Studies, UK 1997 B.A. (Joint Honours) in Sculpture, Camberwell College of Art, The London Institute, UK
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS — PHOTOGRAPY
2012 Solo Show Jonathan LeVine Gallery. New York, NY 2011 SCOPE-Miami Contemporary Art Fair, with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Miami, FL 2011 Anthro[physis]. Rivera and Rivera Gallery. Los Angeles, CA 2011 JOZELONDON. Battersea Park Rd, London, UK 2011 Safe Planet, The Ocean in US. Roundhouse, Vancouver, Canada 2011 Safe Planet, Plastic Pollution. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 2010 HEFT. The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester, UK
PUBLIC WORKS — SCULPTURE
2012 Urban Reef, Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2012 The Phoenix. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2012 The Listener. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2012 The Last Supper. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 The Holy Man. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 Time Bomb. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 The Musician. Musha Cay, Copperfield Bay, Bahamas 2011 The Anthropocene. Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 The Promise. Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 Ineria. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 Void. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 Inheritance. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2011 The Silent Evolution. (450 sculptures) Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2009 The Gardener of Hope. Punta Nizuc, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2009 Dream Collector. Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2009 Man on Fire. Isla Mujeres, Museo Subacuático de Arte. Cancun, Mexico 2009 Inverted Solitude. Chepstow national diving centre, UK 2008 The Un-Still Life II. Public stone sculpture, Palini, Crete, Greece. 2007 Vicissitudes. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2007 The Fall from Grace. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2007 The Un-Still Life. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2006 Grace Reef. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2006 Sienna. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2006 The Lost Correspondent. Moliniere underwater sculpture park, Grenada 2001 Faces. St Margaret’s Bay, Kent 1998 Guise. Trafalgar Square, Regents Park, Westminster, Waterloo Bridge, London
ACHIEVEMENTS
2011 Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park listed as a “Wonder of the world” by National Geographic. 2010 MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) described by Forbes as a “Unique travel destination”. 2009 Founder and creator of MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) in Cancun, Isla Mujeres and Punta Nizuc, National Marine Park. Mexico. 2006 Founder and creator of the world’s first public underwater sculpture park in Moliniere Bay, Grenada, West Indies
SELECTED PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
BBC, CNN, Vogue, USA Today, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, The Independent, New Scientist, UNESCO, Public Art Review, Sculpture Magazine.
SELECTED WORKS
The Silent Evolution, Cancun, Mexico
The Silent Evolution, Cancun, Mexico
Vicissitudes, Grenada, West Indies
Man on Fire, Cancun, Mexico
Holy Man, Cancun, Mexico
The Silent Evolution, Cancun, Mexico Inertia, Cancun , Mexico
The Banker, Cancun, Mexico Time Bomb, Cancun, Mexico
Inheritance, Cancun, Mexico
The Gardener, Cancun, Mexico
Anthropocene, Cancun, Mexico
Urban Reef, Cancun, Mexico
Vicissitudes, Grenada, West Indies
The Silent Evolution, Cancun, Mexico
Jason deCaires Taylor is eco-sculptor who creates underwater living sculptures, offering viewers mysterious, ephemeral encounters and fleeting glimmers of another world where art develops from the effects of nature on the efforts of man. His site-specific, permanent installations are designed to act as artificial reefs, attracting corals, increasing marine biomass and aggregating fish species, while crucially diverting tourists away from fragile natural reefs and thus providing space for natural rejuvenation. Subject to the abstract metamorphosis of the underwater environment, his works symbolize a striking symbiosis between man and nature, balancing messages of hope and loss. 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 multi-dimensional 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.
NEW PROJECT: FLORIDA KEYS
The Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to creating offshore nurseries and restoration programs for threatened coral species. CRF is leading the development of new nursery and restoration techniques. Tens of thousands of corals are grown and maintained in multiple offshore nurseries. After a year in the nursery, corals are out planted to a degraded reef. With the help of students, volunteers, scientists, dive operators, public aquariums, and community groups, thousands of corals grown in CRF’s nurseries have already been outplanted on coral reefs. The proposed project would partner with this organization to provide a sculpture for the underwater nursery helping to draw awareness and attention to positive vision of the future.
Concept Design:
Live Coral nursery with cement figurative works.
Materials: Working with marine biologists, specialist inert, pH neutral cement and marine grade fibre-glass will be used to construct the piece. All materials will be treated to ensure no pollutants are realized into the ocean.
Budget Outline
Stage Activity Material Size Time Estimated Cost Scale €Euro 1. Designs Site/client visit, field survey, project ------2 wks 10001641 proposal
2. Permits Upon approval of proposal, ------1 month 500 environmental permits and permissions tendered. 4-5 months 3.Moulding Life casting of models and second stage Silicone 3 Life- 1200 silicone moulds for final cement casts RF378 size 3 months mould 4. Final cement casting of the moulds and Type 2 Area 1800 Construction mounting on bases/ framework marine 48sq m cement 6 weeks Silicas 5. Sea freight via container to Miami Transportatio ------2 weeks 1659 n
Ground transportation and barge ------1 day 2200 6. Installation installation at sea
1641 Artists Fees
Total 3-4 months €10,000