iMedia: Jason deCaires Taylor's art

 

              While on the internet I found an online journal called Venues: The Journal of 21st Century Aesthetics - that posts archives of all different types of recent art.  (Link to Venues) Under the sculptures category in this journal, I found a picture of an underwater sculpture, called “Vicissitudes”, that was created by a British sculptor named Jason deCaires Taylor (the image from Venues shown above).  I realized that Taylor’s sculpture is a good example of postmodern art for a number of reasons.

                According to the Venues journal, which explained the Taylor’s art very briefly, the statues Taylor creates are intended to make man-made coral reefs in the sea. I think it is so amazing that his works of art are able to go beyond beauty by also having a positive impact on the underwater environment. I think that Taylor’s environmentally-conscious art is a reaction to the postmodern worldview notion that human’s mastery or manipulation of nature can fail and have negative effects. I believe this because Taylor has found a way to create something to help make up for damage done to coral reefs by human’s actions.  Jason Taylor’s art is evidence that in recent years people have been more environmentally aware than past generations have been, and are more willing to ‘go green’ to help the environment in a variety of ways.

                Another intended function of Taylor’s art that Venues journal mentioned was to confuse archaeologists of the future.  After reading this I thought it was sort of strange and malicious of Taylor for this to be an intended result of his work. Once I thought about it for a second I realized that Taylor may have been responding to another postmodern idea, that it is not possible to have historical authenticity in today’s society.

                I wanted to learn more about Jason deCaires Taylor and his unique art, so I searched his name and found another site called Twisted Sifter that had a recent article about him. (Link to this article) This page included further information about his work “Vicissitudes”.  Apparently the figures in this sculpture are children from different cultures. The children are holding hands in a circle to represent the idea of unity among people from all over the world. Another interesting element that this site revealed to me about this piece of art is that it has been somewhat transformed since it has been put under water (shown in the image below, found in the Twisted Sifter article). As the sea takes over the role as the artist, Taylor’s sculptures develop new color and decoration, and show how beautiful entropy can turn out to be.

                Another thing that this article brought to my attention is that Jason deCaires Taylor has become very famous for his work. Taylor gained recognition worldwide after creating the very first submerged sculpture park located in the West Indies in 2006. He is also the founder of MUSA in Cancun, Mexico, an underwater museum.  Taylor’s work has been in presented several publications and he has made many appearances on television. Despite the inability to sell his work that is located underwater, he still is able to make commissions on his work, which just goes to show that in the postmodern world that art is a commodity.

                Jason Taylor’s work has showed me that there are always new possibilities when it comes to art and mediums. This inspires me to continue to think divergently while working on my own art so that I could possibly create works that are as ground-breaking as Taylor’s are.