The Genesis of an Underwater Sculpture Park
Paolo Pescatori (Paolo the Fisherman), a resident of Talamone, Italy, began his life at sea as a fisherman at age 13. Now in his sixties, he still navigates the waters in his small boat. His hometown holds a secret that has fascinated him all his life: mystical sea forests growing from shipwrecks and the schools of fish swimming within them have been a source of wonder for local residents. However, this magical world faced a colossal and uncompromising threat: trawlers dredging the seabed. These fishing fleets drop their nets to the ocean floor, ruthlessly and indiscriminately scraping everything in their path, including fish, mollusks and seaweed. ‘It’s like burning an entire forest to catch a single rabbit,’ Paolo lamented.
Despite efforts by local authorities to crack down on this illegal fishing method, the trawlers continued their destructive activities by turning off their GPS signals to hide their locations and actions. Paolo mounted a defense of the ocean floor by cutting the trawl wires while the authorities contributed by dropping marble blocks to the seabed, making trawling impossible. This campaign gave rise to an extraordinary collaboration between Paolo, the authorities and the art world.
Paolo petitioned the owners of the quarries of Carrara, famous for their marble used at nearby sculpture schools, for help — eventually receiving more than a hundred marble blocks. He then contacted local and international artists to see if they would consider creating artworks with the marble. They willingly agreed. The result: scores of marvelous undersea sculptures and a testament to the power of creativity in conservation. One of the works by sculptor Emily Young, was displayed alongside the Venice Biennale in 2024. The 12-ton giant sculpture ‘Weeping Guardian,’ submerged in 2015, has become a guardian of the underwater kingdom.
Emily Young, The Weeping Guardian.
Emily Young, a UK native, began her involvement in this project while working on her sculptures at the Santa Croce convent in Tuscany. Her profound and sublime spiritual worldview is reflected in her figurative sculptures, primarily created using exotic-colored materials such as limestone, onyx, quartz, tuff, and lapis lazuli. When she shapes her works, she says she collaborates with the stones rather than merely using them, adding an inspiring spiritual dimension to her art. Emily Young’s grandmother, Katherine Bruce, was a pioneering female sculptor who worked in Paris in the early 20th century and was close to Rodin. Her marriage to the Antarctic explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, and her subsequent creation of bronze and marble statues in his honor, deeply influenced Emily. This strong family connection to art and exploration made Emily Young and her incredible work a natural fit for the underwater project.
Emily Young, The Weeping Guardian.
While ‘Weeping Guardian’ serves as a protector in Tuscany, Doug Aitken’s ‘Underwater Pavilion,’ submerged in the Caribbean Sea, raises awareness of oceanic environments and evokes underwater sublimity. This concept refers to the awe-inspiring and transcendent beauty of the ocean, which Aitken captures through his pavilion’s design. The pavilion features portals that prismatically reflect light from multiple angles, creating a mesmerizing play of light and shadow that mirrors the ever-changing beauty of the ocean. The three temporary underwater sculptures, created with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), feature geometric designs with reflective surfaces and stone-like textures. Snorkelers and scuba divers swimming through these artworks experience the enchanting and mysterious sensation of passing through a kaleidoscope, fully immersing themselves in the rhythm and vitality of the vast ocean. Such an extraordinary underwater art leads to the discovery of the marine environment, fostering awareness and participation in marine conservation.
When I lived in London, I kept saltwater fish in an aquarium. Even after filling the tank with seawater and installing a thermostat and an oxygen tank, the fish couldn’t survive. Only by placing a “live rock” that was one-fifth the size of the tank and waiting over two weeks for microorganisms to emerge from the rock did the water become “live” and habitable for fish. For two years, the aquarium brought me daily wonder, but a single mistake such as the water temperature rising by just one degree during cleaning could caused a catastrophic disaster. This experience and insight led me to organize the 2009 exhibition “Earth Alert: Photographic Response to Climate Change,” which aimed to raise awareness about the impact of human activities on marine ecosystems. The exhibition was held in London (Korean Cultural Centre UK) and Seoul (Daelim Museum) and featured works that predicted many of the scenarios we are witnessing today.
Research has shown that trawlers’ destruction of the seabed has resulted in the release of carbon stored underwater into the atmosphere. Utah State University and other researchers published these findings in the international journal “Frontiers.” According to their study, after reviewing data on trawler activity from 1996 to 2022, it was estimated that the amount of carbon released from the seabed due to trawlers was about 8.5 to 9.2 billion tons. The study highlighted that the East China Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Greenland Sea, where trawling is particularly active, saw the highest levels of carbon release. If an artist’s work, deeply connected to the ocean, can help save this precious sea, just as a fisherman protected the waters of his hometown, there is hope. The power of art to inspire conservation efforts is evident. On the waves of the Adriatic Sea, I hear the inspiring sound of hopeful seaweed.
Translated from Korean article for Korea Times
https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2024071010250004200
Written by Dr.Stephanie Seungmin Kim