British sculptor Jason DeCaires Taylor, well-known to divers for the large-scale underwater art installations he has created around the world, has come up with a new inter-tidal work as part of his Siren series of environmental warnings.
He says that the Pacific island commission was his most remote to date – and it could prove to be one of the least-often seen in person.
The artwork has been installed in the Solomon Islands in recognition of the work of local climate activist Gladys Habu Bartlett. Her ancestral home was on 5-hectare Kale Island, the first island in the Solomons to be inundated by fast-rising sea levels that forced her grandparents’ family to move away to a new mainland home.
The loss of Kale Island inspired Bartlett to became a prominent advocate for vulnerable coastal communities, and the life-sized figure in Taylor’s new sculpture is based on her, resting against a marine-grade stainless-steel tree that represents Kale’s drowned vegetation.
The scupture is marked with dates at 10-year intervals, the lowest recording the island’s inundation between 2006 and 2016 – the point at which its complete loss to the tides was scientifically confirmed – through 2026, when the sculpture was installed, to future years 2036 and 2046.
The markings reflect the current 1cm annual rate of sea-level rise in this part of the Pacific Ocean.
The tree offers resting places for seabirds and the sculpture’s base, made of pH neutral cement and Biochar, is designed to encourage the marine-life colonisation that is expected to turn the Solomon Siren into a living artwork below as well as above the waterline.
The British High Commission in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara commissioned Taylor to produce and install the sculpture. The artist is known not only for his creations but for the follow-up underwater photography that records changes in its appearance over time.
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