Location (see map): Edition 1: Haugesund, Norway; Edition 2: Museo Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, MIAC, Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Tidal sculpture: 0-8m
Installation Date: 2021
The Rising Tide is a tidal artwork that depicts a series of working horses with riders, which are loosely based on the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. They were originally exhibited in the River Thames positioned within sight of the Houses of Parliament in 2015. Each was submerged and revealed by the tide river twice daily.
The horse’s heads have been replaced by an oil well pump or a “nodding donkey” as they are also known. The suited figures illustrate an attitude of denial or ambivalence towards our current climate crisis and the young riders represent hope in effecting future change.
The sculptures symbolise our desire to control natural forces, but their position in a vast body of moving water highlights our inherent fragility. It is intended to provide a disturbing metaphor for rising sea levels, demonstrating how little time we have to act, yet crucially it offers hope as it resets itself each day, offering us the opportunity for change.
To discover more of Jason deCaires Taylor’s projects, view Exploring the Underwater World Through Sculpture here.
Other previous projects located Norway include: Nexus and Sculpture at Under
Materials: Stainless steel, pH neutral cement, basalt and aggregates
To see more images of Jason deCaires Taylor’s Rising Tide visit the full gallery.
We really have to start holding people accountable for what they are doing. And that needs to be documented in stone rather than in a few words in a newspaper column that disappears. There are a lot of people whose actions need to be immortalised.
Jason deCaires Taylor
