Submerged five metres below in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea, a circle of children stands serenely, hands clasped, eyes closed. Their creator, Jason deCaires Taylor, an English artist and naturalist, floats above, content with the knowledge that over time his children will be unrecognisable. “Time and the environment impact on and shape the physical body,” says Taylor, who adds: “Children by nature are adaptive to their surroundings.”
Patrons to his art gallery, wearing wetsuits and flippers, scuba dive around his work, observing algae and other marine life already transfiguring cement torsos and faces. Within years, the children will be utterly transformed.
Aptly named Vicissitudes, meaning natural change, the cement finish of the sculptures actively promotes the colonisation of coral and marine life, over time creating an artificial coral reef. “Close to…