The images and music you will experience in the video player below happens to be my favorite of the numerous presentations showing a large collection of submerged sculptures in Grenada, West Indies.
The artist is Jason deCaires Taylor, a man with a wide-ranging background who became inspired to produce a massive gallery of underwater figures that he created out of cement, stone and steel. If you are a diver, you can see the works for yourself. If not, you can enjoy the videos — including this one with its slow, evocative piano music as the viewer drifts over and among the neglected human figures.
I can see myself in the piece titled “The Lost Correspondent,” shown as the video begins. Now I know what happened to my old typewriter.
The sculpture shows a man sitting at a desk with a writing machine of yesteryear. Scattered across the desk are numerous newspaper articles and clippings dating back many years. Some describe Grenada’s political history, including the country’s alignment with Cuba in the 1950s.
For this lone figure lost in an alien world, change is taking place around him whether or not he is ready for it to come.
If you would like to know more about where Taylor gets his inspiration and ideas, check out his website called Underwater Sculptures, where you will find still images, videos, bios and more. In a descriptive video interview, correspondent Miranda Krestovnikoff of The Underwater Channel, asked Taylor, “What sort of impression do you want to create?” Taylor’s reply:
“Firstly, the different ways of looking at the world and how we fit into it… Our place in the evolution and how things are constantly changing… And how nature is so powerful and incredible. You just have to be awed by it.”
For a preview of Taylor’s next major creation, check out this underwater sculpture park in Cancun, Mexico, where construction of a much larger aquatic exhibit is well under way.
