Executive summary by darmansjah
between people and water in hi submerged sculptures of human
EARTH’s great
storyteller – “water is the driving force
of all nature” – Leonardo da Vinci
It’s a water world, our planet, blanketed by an ocean,
capped by ice, and carved by rivers and lakes and glaciers. Though it’s all H₂O,
water takes an almost infinite variety of forms and hues. The steaming
turquoise pools of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, trapped
in volcanic rock, present an otherworldly vision. Victorian Falls, thundering across a
one-mile expanse, embody the sheer massive power of water plus gravity. The
gigantic breaking waves of Oahu’s North Shore
tell of the power of storms at sea. And
the sheer walls of Norway’s crystalline fjord
stand as reminders of the ancient grinding passage of glaciers.
Water captivates us not only with its manifestation but also
with the life it nurtures. Around Australia’s Great
Barrier Reef, thousands of species make their homes, from dugongs to
cuttlefish to poisonous cone shells. Drenched by monsoons, the rain forests of
central Borneo are a biologist’s fever dream. They hold pygmy elephants
and flying snakes, not to mention the thousands of insects and mosses and
lichens that form the base of the pyramid of life here. Kelp forest off California’s coast are forests of the deep,
sheltering crabs and sea urchins at their base and rockfish and leopard sharks
in their canopies. In some watery environments, we may even find clues to the
shape of life on other planets. The blue holes
of the Bahamas, for instance, nurture rare bacteria that can live without
oxygen.
And as for humans: Though we are drawn to the water, this
does not prevent us from polluting it. Sculptor Jason deCaries Taylor has
created his own artistic commentary on the relationship between people and
water in his submerged sculptures of human for human forms, gradually worn away
and colonized by the sea and its creatures.
Falling Free
Long known to locals, Angel
Falls became internationally famous in the 1930s after American flier
Jimmie Angel crash-landed nearby. The Venezuelan falls, on the Churun River
,drop free of the cliff face for 3,212 feet (979 m), making them the highest in
the world.
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