out of the ashes...

Wendy Stefansson. Out of the Ashes. Slip-cast porcelain, pit fired. 1996

This is a piece about resurrection.

It is a fragment of male torso -- possibly a crucifix -- cast in white porcelain, then fired in a “pit” full of combustibles. It’s the smoke from this process that causes the random and subtle colouration on the surface. I literally lifted it out of the ashes after the fire had died, and found it was in pieces. I glued the pieces back together and assembled them on a board for strength. It was a bit like being an archaeologist, reassembling the fragments of an earlier creation; an earlier being. Like being a god, re-creating it, giving it new life.

the place of our beginnings....

Jason deCaires Taylor. Reclamation. Concrete and coral.

For years now, sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor has been making moulds of living people, casting them in concrete and submerging them in the seas. He has created underwater installations of figures which ache with the beauty, the serenity, the ecstasy, the weariness and the longing of humanity. A colony of watchers of the marine world, but for their closed eyes. Of witnesses, but for their closed mouths. 

DeCaires Taylor's intention is not only to make art, but also to create a context for the new growth of endangered corals; a human reef. The figures are the armature which will bear the accretion of new life. Which will distract divers from the natural reefs, allowing them to regenerate as well. Which will bring us full-circle, returning humanity to the place of our beginnings in the sea.

A death and a homecoming.

Jason deCaires Taylor. Resurrection. Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. The Silent Evolution. Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. The Silent Evolution. Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. The Silent Evolution. Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. The Silent Evolution.
Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. Man of Fire.
Concrete and coral.

Jason deCaires Taylor. Vicissitudes. Concrete and coral.

Learn more about these works, go here. or see a video here.