The Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) has been completed so as to enhance and conserve the incredible biodiversity of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and on the sea bed it displays sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor to divers who are also art lovers.
Off the coast of Townsville in the state of Queensland, the MOUA hosts a collection of works underwater by the British artist. The only exhibit in the museum visible above sea level is the sculpture “Ocean Siren”, a work whose colors take on different hues depending on changes in water temperature. The sculpture makes visual the rise in water temperature that has led to an unprecedented bleaching of the corals, as the algae that live in their tissues are pushed out. It is made from stainless steel and translucent acrylic and inside it has 202 LED lights which change colour with the rise and fall of temperature. Viewers, from afar, notice a change from deep blue to light blue, to yellow, to orange, and finally to deep red, an indication that the coral reef is in immediate danger.
The new garden of the underwater museum which is the largest in the southern hemisphere—called the “Coral Greenhouse”—was scheduled to open last April but because of the pandemic the opening was postponed. It comprises 20 pieces of sculpture which will increase in size, being gradually covered by coral so as to attract new sea life in the Great Barrier Reef.
See more about the Museum of Underwater Art here.
