Under the blue line of the ocean’s surface is a world alive with movement. The environment is itself in constant motion; sunlight ripples across the scales of fish, while coral reef plants sway with the push and pull of the currents.

Often this world is forgotten by us land-dwellers, but not by sculptor and naturalist Jason deCaires Taylor. He has created, in the world’s first underwater museums, the perfect exhibit space for his larger-than-life sculptures.

His are museums that need no curator. The ocean does that job, constantly updating the exhibit and transforming the sculptures into a functioning artificial reef. Perhaps it is this partnership between artist and ocean that is the true innovation.

An Eye for New Terrain, A Voice for the Ocean’s Future

What makes a great art exhibit? Emotive lighting, hints of wonder, astonishment, awe, or a powerful backdrop? Taylor’s chosen space has them all.

Taylor constructed underwater museums first near Grenada and then off the coast of Cancún, Mexico, and the Bahamas. Later he moved to more underwater locations around the world from Indonesia to the Oslo Fjord in Norway. Taylor explains why he loves to work in the aquatic gallery space:

Being underwater is a deeply personal, liberating, and otherworld experience. Like many interactions with the natural world, submersion is both humbling and life-affirming.

Through his passion for diving, Taylor acquired an understanding of the sea’s territory, seeing it as a place to be revered and respected. Travelers who visit his museums sense, through his art installations, this feeling of deep respect for the oceans.

Taylor’s underwater museums, however, are more than a message. They show that humans can, in turn, have a positive impact on nature.

Art that Takes Action

Although coral reefs inhabit only 1% of the ocean’s vastness, a quarter to a third of all marine species call them home. Coral reefs are fleeting and fragile, too. Coral and sea sponges can be swept away by a hurricane or a snorkeler’s careless hand. They are often over-visited and over-fished.

With this in mind, Taylor constructs his sculptures in a way that preserves and extends coral reefs.

He uses durable ph-neutral cement to form his artwork, texturing surfaces so that reef plants can attach. This encourages the expansion of the natural landscape, and results in living spaces for crustaceans and fish.

His underwater museums, then, serve as artificial reefs that relieve natural reefs from excessive tourism in destinations like Cancún, Mexico. When snorkelers and divers spend time visiting Taylor’s sculptures, the natural reefs have space and time to generate life.

What started as “a small community” of sculptures off the coast of Cancún, grew into “an entire movement of people in defense of the sea.”

Through his sculptures, Taylor has provided an amazing gallery of art and a place for ocean life to flourish. Ocean and artist share the same goals: encouragement of life. They have a symbiotic relationship, benefiting one another with their artistic innovations.

Silent Innovation by the Sea

Without as much as a whisper, the ocean begins to change the sculptures. As nature flourishes, the artwork undergoes mind-blowing transformations. Taylor explains witnessing the change:

As soon as we submerge the sculptures, they are not ours anymore. . . . The sculptures—they belong to the sea. As new reefs form, a new world literally starts to evolve.

For Taylor, the innovation in his work really begins when nature takes over. The ocean paints with the most spectacular red algae, curving coral, and sponges.

Jason deCaires Taylor’s work is a collaboration with the environment. Taylor lays down the foundation, and Nature forms positive mutations, achieving extraordinary appearances that only the ocean could conjure upon these man-made surfaces.

Oh, I See for Myself

I visited one of Taylor’s underwater museums off the coast of Cancún. As I swam from one sculpture to another, weaving around real reefs to visit the artificial ones, I saw first-hand how the sculptures change with time, how they become more a part of the sea with each passing day.

I experienced the quiet underneath the ocean’s surface—a forgotten world that supports extraordinary life all the while. I became a part of Taylor’s artwork and mission, a traveler who entered his underwater museum out of curiosity and who left with a sense of responsibility to encourage life in Earth’s vast blue oceans.

Thank you, Jason, for your wonderful work and for sharing your photography. To see more images of Taylor’s work, check out his underwater sculptures. Dive deeper into Taylor’s underwater museum with this five minute video.