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In the Studio: Jason deCaires Taylor - Underwater Sculptor

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Jason deCaires Taylor - Underwater sculptor

13/11/2018 GMT

Jason deCaires Taylor - Underwater Sculptor

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Jason deCaires Taylor - Underwater Sculptor

Creating an art gallery on the ocean floor

Sculptor, marine conservationist and scuba diver Jason deCaires Taylor creates works of art to be displayed on the ocean floor.

Miranda Krestovnikoff puts on her diving suit and invites underwater sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor to guide her through his studios, both under the ocean and on land.
 
Jason is a sculptor, marine conservationist and scuba diver who combines all his passions to take the art gallery to a whole new realm - the ocean floor. The life-like human figures he creates take on an often breathtaking guise in their underwater  gallery, as algae, fish and the refracted light filtering down from the surface, all combine to form an otherworldly kind of art.
 
Miranda finds Jason tackling several different projects - not least moving his studio from Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands back to the UK. She discovers the huge variety of skills required in his work, from the detail of creating a human sculpture (at one point she finds herself covered in plaster in Jason’s casting room) to the global task of drawing attention to the current threat to our oceans.
 
It also becomes clear that for Jason, creating sculptures and raising awareness of marine conservation often gets overshadowed by complex logistical and technical challenges - such as what to do when sculptures are broken by cavalier delivery drivers, and how to prevent heavy sculptures crashing through the studio floor.
 
And there is one area over which even Jason has no control – politics. Sometimes projects are frustratingly delayed, while at other times there is far more at stake.
 
Producer: Alex Anderson

(Image: Jason deCaires Taylor. Credit: Tandem Productions)

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