The Haunting Undersea Sculpture Garden of Cancun's Jason de Claires-Taylor Nina Golgowski - Daily Mail UK
go to original October 20, 2012

Film detailing works by Jason deCaires Taylor starting with the oldest pieces though to the most recent in 2012. The filming spans three countries; Grenada, Bahamas and Mexico. (Jason deCaires Taylor)

Few works of art could be so dramatic, eco-friendly and despite its trick to get to, a success.

But one British artist's underwater sculpture gardens, positioning hundreds of life-sized men, women and children moulded from real humans captures just that.

Planted off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, divers are not only welcome but encouraged to explore the hundreds of detailed bodies and faces otherwise left in the quiet company of fish and creeping coral reefs.

The mission of 37-year-old artist Jason de Claires-Taylor is to distract divers from the nearby Mesoamerican Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world, that struggles to handle the swarming tourists who visit annually.

It is also gradually working to become an artificial habitat to the fish and plant life on an otherwise barren sea floor.

"It's like putting a sculpture in the Sahara," de Claires-Taylor told the New York Times of his work, emphasizing the amount of space the seafloor offers as one's palate.

In one recently added section titled Urban Reef, a structure resembling a human house is found, complete with windows, roof shingles and a chimney - perfect for moray eels the design states.

"Working with local marine biologists the units are designed with a variety of rooms, spaces, hideaways and textures all tailored for different reef inhabitants.

"Located on an open stretch of terrain the houses also offer a place of shelter and refuge from reef predators such as Barracudas and Lion Fish," his gallery explains.

Since the park's creation in 2009 - expanding from his first off Grenada in the West Indies that was listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic - the park has grown to nearly 500 pieces, each with their own story to tell.

Such is the case of the bankers, a collection of suited men with their heads buried in the sand.

Among them lay scattered brief cases and calculators.

"The installation symbolizes a resistance and denial to acknowledge our looming environmental crisis and the shortsighted actions and poor accountability of banking and government institutions.

"The identical positioning of the figures in a pray like pose also aims to depict a shifting in values and misplaced emphasis towards monetary remuneration.

"The design also supports an internal living space between the legs of bankers for crustaceans and juvenile fish to breed and inhabit," his gallery explains.

Approximately 6-8 metres below the sunlit surface, all of the artwork is made from a special type of cement which is 10 times harder than the normal kind and has a neutral PH making it favourable to corals.

With the area prone to strong weather like hurricanes, the statues are reinforced by rigid fibreglass with similar properties to rock so they remain in place.

They are also anchored to the rocky sea bed 10 metres below the surface using a special drill, fused together and weighing over 120 tons in total.

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