An Underwater Experience

  (Vissitudes, 2007)

One would find this a very extraordinary experience created by Jason de Caires Taylor: finding some sculptures under 5m clear water in the sea of Grenada, southern tip of the Windward Island in the Caribbean.

    

The sea of the Caribbean is crystal clear, and the sculptures could be viewed simply by swimmers doing snorkeling.  There are several groups of sculptures, several communities, that Taylor has placed under the sea.  Through the clear blue water, the sculptures look like some ancient ruins and the appreciation process becomes an interesting discovery process.

The sculptures at the beginning are the art creations of Taylor, but after those have been placed under the sea, the nature takes it on board to shed lives to the sculptures.  The sculptures have evolved under the sea through time and eventually become part of the coral reef and habitats under the sea.  The project demonstrates and experiments on the relationships between man and environment, art and nature, transformation and immortality. 

Quote:  Taylor focuses his work on the connection between the object and the environment in which it is placed reflects his own experience: “I encountered change from an early age as my family moved from one cultural environment to another. This was the beginning of my fascination with how objects and relationships change as landscapes and contexts alter.”

One of the underwater communities created by Taylor is the Vissitudes: a circle of figures, all linked through holding hands. These are life-size casts taken from a group of children of diverse ethnic background, evoking ideas of unity and continuum.

 

Here are some other underwater communities created by Taylor, they are now in the sea of Grenada, transforming and waiting to be discovered.   (The Lost Correspondant, 2007) 

  (Sienna, 2007)

============================== 

Jason Taylor was born in 1974 to an English father and Guyanese mother. Educated in South East England, he graduated at Camberwell College of Art, London Institute with a B.A.Honours in Sculpture and Ceramics. He has exhibited sculptures in several public spaces, including Trafalgar Square, Regents Park, Waterloo and Camberwell. He is a fully qualified dive instructor with over 14 years of diving experience in a variety of countries worldwide.

 

sophie’s gallery

my black & white impressions.

 to the light house, okinawa, japan, july 07.

coastal, okinawa, japan, july 07.

Light & Form

Church of Light (光の教堂), Ando Tadao (安藤忠雄 あんど　ただお), 1989.
4-3-50 Kita-Kasugaoka, Ibaraki- Shi, Osaka Perfecture.   
Tel) 0726-27-0071

Ando Tadao is one of my favourite architects.  His famous artistic creation, the Church of the Light, is a valuable gift to the world.

Born in Osaka, 13 Sept 1941, Ando entered into the profession of Architecture in 1969 after doing self-study and travelling around the world between 1962 and 1969.  He has won lots of architectual awards since 1979.  The lastest one is the 2002 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, by his “Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum, Osaka”. 

Ando’s signature is his favourite material, the fair-faced concrete (清水混凝土, in Chinese).  In his master pieces, one could easily appreciate the contrasts of solid and fluid, dark and light, raw and artifice, hard and soft, form and space, concrete and abstract.  His work always blends well with the natural environment, instead of confrontation and alienation, which shows his love and respect to the nature. 

The Church of the Light is one of Ando’s most famous creations.  Applying his favourite material, the fair-faced concrete, Ando has created a clean, quiet and humble space for people to pray and meditate.  Inside the Church, a cross-shaped opening is crafted on the plain concrete wall at the shrine to allow natural light from outside to come in.  One may find it miracle or even sublime that when natural light comes into the Church, a “light cross” appears at the shrine, a cross that is made form light and form only.  With the non-materialistic “light cross”, one would immediately understands the concept of divine and spiritual and be “enlightened”.  I would say that, the Church of the Light, by itself, incorporates Ando’s philosophy and representation of beauty with sublime beauty.     

       

   

“There is a role and function for beauty in our time. In Japan it may be translated into the concept of Uskuji, which also means a beautiful life, that is, how a person lives––his or her inner life. It’s something beyond appearance, or what only meets the eye. You can’t really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you. People tend not to use this word beauty because it’s not intellectual—but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect.“

- Ando Tadao, in an interview by Architectual Record, talking about “beauty”.

Awards

• Annual Prize (Row House, Sumiyoshi), Architectural Institute of Japan, 1979
• Cultural Design Prize (Rokko Housing One and Two), Japan, 1983
• Alvar Aalto Medal, The Finnish Association of Architects, 1985
• Gold Medal of Architecture, French Academy of Architecture, 1989
• Carlsberg Architectural Prize, Denmark, 1992
• Japan Art Academy Prize, Japan, 1993
• Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1995
• Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, 1995
• Praemium Imperiale First “FRATE SOLE” Award in Architecture, Japan Art Association, 1996
• Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, 1997
• Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 1997
• AIA Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects (AIA), 2002

In progress

• House, stable, and mausoleum for former fashion designer Tom Ford , near Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Expansion for the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts
• Rebuilding the Kobe Kaisei Hospital in Nada Ward, Kobe, Japan
• New Tokyo Tower