Underwater sculpture installations highlight the dangers of climate change

Visitors to a new art installation in the Caribbean will need to take masks and oxygen tanks. “A World Adrift” is an underwater sculptural exhibition and the work of a British artist who wants to highlight the dangers of climate change for the West Indies. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports for our coverage on art and climate change and our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

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Geoff Bennett: Visitors to a new art installation in the Caribbean will need to take masks and oxygen tanks.

Called A World Adrift, the underwater sculptural exhibition is the work of a British artist who wants to highlight the dangers of climate change for the West Indies.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports for our ongoing coverage of the intersection of art and climate change and our series Canvas.

Malcolm Brabant: In common with every artist, Jason deCaires Taylor’s vision begins with a blank canvas, but his latest is more exotic than most, the shallows of the Caribbean.

Jason deCaires Taylor, Sculptor: For me, it’s really important. It’s a way of telling stories about the sea. It’s about our relationship to nature and looking into this fascinating space where are different. Refraction is different, textures, formations, evolution, even how you feel is completely different.

Malcolm Brabant: Taylor’s cavernous studio in the county of Kent, southeast of London, is currently empty. The sculptures and the message they convey are being installed on the seafloor.

What’s left behind are his preparatory models.

Jason deCaires Taylor: This is trying to get an idea of what the larger pieces are going to look like once they’re underwater. So we tried to replicate the water, the surface texture, how light will penetrate through that, and how, again, the organic transformation will adhere to the figures and change how they look.

Malcolm Brabant: This is where you will be able to find the installation, nestling in the turquoise waters of Carriacou, one of three islands that comprise the small nation of Grenada, paradise in peril.

Jason deCaires Taylor: They’re small boats. They’re made to look like they’re fabricated in origami. They’re actually made in marine stainless steel. And they encompass these local school children.

And they have sails which also sort of depict messages about climate change. But overall, it’s meant to show this fragile future that we’re building for our young communities and how in peril they are.

Malcolm Brabant: Climate change is a constant theme of Taylor’s work. In sight of Britain’s Parliament, these four horsemen of the apocalypse are speaking to power, sending a message to governments everywhere, reverse the pace of climate change and stop the water’s rise.

Not far from Taylor’s studio in Whitstable on the North Kent coast is the sculptor’s expression of anger at pollution exacerbated by climate change. This work, sitting on the shingle, is in solidarity with wild swimmers and fisherfolk whose livelihood is dependent on some of Britain’s finest oyster beds.

Just like the Caribbean, wet old Britain is suffering from climate change in that it’s raining even more than ever before. And when it rains, Britain’s antiquated sewage systems just can’t cope. And the water companies are pumping record levels of sewage into the rivers and the seas.

How can art affect climate change?

Jason deCaires Taylor: I’m not sure art can affect climate change, but it can certainly change our attitudes towards it.

And so with this particular installation, I’m really hoping that it will demonstrate how fragile some of these small Caribbean nation islands are and how at risk they are from hurricanes, rising sea levels, warming seas, which have a very detrimental effect to the coral reefs.

Malcolm Brabant: And the warm seas also have a really serious effect on making the hurricanes stronger.

Jason deCaires Taylor: Yes, of course, the hurricanes become much stronger and they become earlier in the season. This recent hurricane, Hurricane Beryl, as the first time that a Category 5 hurricane has ever been recorded at this time of year.

Malcolm Brabant: Hurricane Beryl, which struck at the beginning of July, caused devastation in Grenada. Three people were killed; 70 percent of buildings on Carriacou, the site of Taylor’s newest work, were either damaged or destroyed.

It’s because of such natural disasters and the fear of worse to come that the government of Grenada commissioned the sculptor.

What is the purpose of doing sculptures underwater, where relatively few people can see them?

Jason deCaires Taylor: So, there are many different purposes. I think, first and foremost, on a very basic level, they’re a habitat for marine life. So they’re designed with textures, formations, surfaces that actually attract marine life. And so that then becomes a platform for corals, for crustaceans, for different types of creatures to actually live within.

It also helps draw people away from natural settings. So the visitors that go to different regions, it helps take them away from natural sites and then brings them to these artificial areas.

Malcolm Brabant: But who’s going to see it apart from the snorkelers?

(Laughter)

Jason deCaires Taylor: Well, you would be surprised. Obviously, now we’re in a very digital era, so thousands and thousands of people see it via their screens.

We’re never going to engineer or negotiate ourselves out of this ecological crisis. That’s only part of the solution. For me, it’s about changing our values and belief systems. But watching nature reclaim its space gives me a sense of hope and a real sense of healing.

If we can reconsider our relationship to nature, to revere it, be reminded that we are nature ourselves, we might see who we really are and what an incredible world we’re really part of.

Malcolm Brabant: And the coming few months could underscore the relevance of Taylor’s work, climate experts are predicting that this hurricane season will be particularly severe.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Malcolm Brabant in Kent.