Underwater Sculptures

Jason de Caires  has managed to combine childhood fantasy and ecological awareness into one monumental installation located under the shallow waters surrounding Cancun, Mexico.

I believe childhood fantasies, the sort we read about in books when we were little children eventually seep into the creations of architects, designers and artists years later. But by then, it is no longer mere fantasy. The dream worlds that are created, which can be inspired by anything from Hans Christian Anderson to Star Wars are now infused with a sense of society. They need to say something, particularly about the geographic or social environment we live in.

Architects create environmentally integrated glass towers that turn green in summer, pale in winter and create their own sources of energy. Environmental designers dream up facades that respond to anything, from human interaction to current weather conditions with light, sounds and other sensory stimulation. All these and more have been in some way or other inspired by the technological fantasies we had as children.

While creating his sculptures, de Caires has had to consider the physics of what is effectively, a foreign world. Our experience of the underwater world is very different and skewed from the reality on land. Our senses, designed to receive sensory information through air are now being made to process this information through a different medium, one we have not been accustomed to for millions of years.

In his artist statement, de Caires has pointed out the optical distortions that come from seeing in a watery medium. These distortions, on top of the refractions that result from the heavier density of water, also include current and turbulence.

In his way, Jason de Caires has created his own magic reality that has augmented both reality and fantasy in the analogue world. His statues are contemplative pieces that make us think about the way we experience reality through our senses, and also of our place in the natural world. They also go several steps further by not just simply being objects to be viewed at but also as work that is being directly interacted with over time. Slowly, they are being transformed into home bases for coral reef, and by natural extension, also turning into an environment for the lives of other aquatic fauna.