This sculptor is sinking fake bombs to the seabed

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

Jason deCaires Taylor’s underwater sculpture is one of those ideas so simple yet brilliant you wish you’d thought of it yourself (and then had the dedication to actually make it happen).

For years now he has been installing a variety of figures and scenes on the seafloor, a paradox of creation ‘constructed to be assimilated by the ocean and transformed from inert objects into living breathing coral reefs’.

While his work carries a message of ‘human intervention as both positive and life-encouraging’, the actual sculptures often depict the darker side of humanity.

I’m thinking of the series ‘Banker’, ‘Inertia’, ‘Lost Correspondent’ and ‘Anthropocene’ in particular (seen below), which by their very situation - drowned - skewer their inherent sadness.

One set that caught my own is a little more playful however, ‘Time Bomb’:

'Inertia' (pic: Jason deCaires Taylor)

'Banker' (pic: Jason deCaires Taylor)

'Lost Correspondent' (pic: Jason deCaires Taylor)

'Anthropocene' (pic: Jason deCaires Taylor)

Located four to eight metres below the surface of the ocean in Mexico, they would like give you quite a fright should you be scuba diving in the area.

In 2006, Taylor founded the world’s first underwater sculpture park off the coast of Grenada and is now listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic. You can view more of his work from the safety of land here.