WATER

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.