The Thames has inspired countless creative works of art but Jason deCaires Taylor went further and actually harnessed the tides to complete his sculpture.
Known particularly for the ever-evolving sculptures of his beautiful, mysterious underwater museums, deCaires Taylor’s work has appeared all over the world. His strong emphasis on the environment and our duty to preserve it for the future struck a chord when his installation The Rising Tide came to London in September 2015.
The Rising Tide, was commissioned by Totally Thames as part of their “Festival of the Thames”. Four life-sized horses each ridden bareback, two by young people facing forward, and two by suited older men, their body language reflecting indifference and their eyes averted from, or seemingly closed to the world. The horses were modelled on sturdy, traditional working horses but their heads were depicted as oil well pumps, known as horse-head pumps.
Installed for one month on Vauxhall beach, the sculptures were yet another manifestation of the growing concern with the effects of climate change attributed, among other reasons, to our dependence on fossil fuels. A concern which has continued to grow and intensify with more direct action around the world in recent weeks. Curiously, as they were made four years ago, the young girl seems to bear a slight resemblance to the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. And, as if prophetically, deCaires Taylor said of the two young riders when the sculptures were installed, that “There is a sign of optimism in the children, who are able to inflict change.”
There may have been other considerations but their setting within the sight of the Houses of Parliament, added weight to the message that deCaires Taylor was trying to bring home to those in power: that their decisions affect the future of our planet.
After design and artistic considerations, the sculptures had to be strong enough to withstand the force of the tides, so they were made of stainless steel, pH neutral high-density marine cement, basalt and aggregates. They were transported along to river to Vauxhall by barge. Just as there is something new to discover on every visit to the river, so no two views of the sculptures were the same. Reflections, light, shadows and the ebb and flow of the tides meant that the sculptures themselves were in a constant and beguiling state of flux.
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