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         BEFORE                                                                 29 YEARS LATER

 

 A Maori Meditation ‘ Finding God ‘
Sermons say read the bible
To know god Kneel and pray
To know god
Obey the commandments
To know god
But yesterday I saw a butterfly
Land on a withered leaf
Just before sunset
And at that moment
I knew god…

A coral reef – a natural marine eco-system composed of the skeletons of living coral together with minerals and organic matter. The coral structures provide hiding, protection and breeding locations for fish and animal life and a surface for life to attach and protection vital in the dynamic waters of our seas. A reef – a ridge of coral or rock found in a body of water, with the top just below or above the surface. An Artificial reef – is created by man, from a variety of materials to serve the same purpose as a natural reef.

My Imagination for artificial reefs was captivated, when I discovered the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace boat, which was actively interfering with the French Nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean was bombed and an activist was killed. The vessel was damaged beyond repaired. and in 1987, she was stripped, clean and then officially sunk in Mataouri Bay, New Zealand. The Rainbow warrior is now a thriving sanctuary for marine life and covered in coral and full of marine life.

There are many famous wrecks around the world that are now marine eco-systems, from the historical treasure ships sort by Jacque Cousteau, the famous sea explorer and inventor of the scuba gear we are all so familiar with, The sailing ships carried gold and other riches from South America, porting in the Caribbean before taking the trade winds across to Europe. Sinking on the invisible reefs hundreds of years ago. It takes a trained eye to observe the disintegrated remains under the natural corals that have formed over the old wooden hulls.

Large cargo vessel and war casualties like the Thistlegorm in the Red sea, Egypt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thistlegorm attract hundreds of divers a day. There are now official wrecks

that have been cleaned of oil and stripped of cables and dangerous fixtures and deliberately sunk for the purpose of providing interesting dive sites, hiding and breeding locations for fishes e.g the Sylla in Plymouth. http://www.divescylla.com

Marine habitats all over the world are suffering under the stress placed on them by human activity. Issues such as over fishing, sediment suffocation to pollution of the water by raw sewage, toxic pesticides and other chemicals. Coral reefs are highly sensitive and techniques such as dynamite fishing and the use of cyanide as a means to stun fish for aquariums and even the live food industry who do not know they are also consuming a cocktail of poisonous chemicals.

I was diving in the north of bali and as we neared our dive we saw another boat, nothing seemed unusual. It was another story under the water. there were hundreds of beautiful fish floating dead in the water and lying all over the reef, still as colourful and lovely. The waste is what really got me. After a while diving around the devastation i heard a load boom and as the vibration rippled through the water i realised they were doing it again. I understand that the people doing this are probably poor and ignorant to the impact they are having but i was so sad. Pointing the blame serves no purpose to me, I believe in putting the energy into solutions.

I am excited by developing my art practice into designed artificial reefs, marine sculptures intended to provide a home for marine life and be atheistically interesting. The sculptures can be witnessed and interacted with in ways not possible on land. the water of the underwater a providing a totally original world to experience art and a brilliant medium through which to have an environmental conscious message.

It is a fairly new arena for art, i do like the work of Jason also an english artist who has created an installation of figures exploring the issues of slavery in the Carribean and a recent work in Mexico http://www.underwatersculpture.com. Ross powers’s http://www.rosspower.com work is more abstract.

 





  



  

  



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