Artist behind ‘disturbing’ sculpture says it’s not intended to cause upset
The artist who created a sculpture which has been called “disturbing” and “shocking” says he’s been “surprised” at the backlash but welcomes difficult conversations it might inspire.
Jason deCaires Taylor told Sky News: “I don’t strive of my artwork to divide people or cause upset. But I do try to talk about issues that are pertinent and relevant to our current times.”
Pic: Jason deCaires Taylor
The 50-year-old artist has a history of producing political work but says this one contained “no political intentions at all” and is based on the painting which inspired Shakespeare‘s tragic heroine Ophelia.
The Alluvia – which is made from recycled glass and steel and features LEDs which light up at night – was installed in the River Stour, in Taylor’s hometown of Canterbury in Kent around a week ago.
However, comments posted on Canterbury City Council’s official Facebook page have included accusations that the work is “tone-deaf” and “offensive”.
One wrote: “I can’t be the only person who finds this deeply offensive. She looks like a drowned woman. How did the council not see the link to women as victims of crime or the sad fact so many drown off the Kent coast as refugees.”
Another said: “I find this sculpture absolutely appalling. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disturbing. The imagery of a submerged figure, reminiscent of a drowning victim, is both morbid and utterly tone-deaf given the tragic drownings that occur along our coastlines. What on earth were the council thinking?”
Others stood up for the work, with one commenting: “More people seem to be “disturbed”, “offended” and “shocked” by this than they do by images of actual drownings which are happening daily along our coasts. Rather than wasting your hate on an artwork that is designed to provoke, why not put some of that energy into something constructive?”
Another wrote: “It’s a beautiful piece of art and nowhere near as disturbing as the previous sculptures that it has replaced. What kind of world do we live in when anything that offends or “triggers” someone, must be removed??”
Pic: Jason deCaires Taylor
The Alluvia on the bed of the river Stour near the Westgate bridge in Canterbury, Kent. Pic: Jason deCaires Taylor
The sculpture had replaced two similar female forms, also created by Taylor, which had been in the water since 2008 but which had been damaged due to dredging.
‘If it fosters care and sympathy, that’s good’
Taylor told Sky News: “I was surprised… 99.9% of all the feedback that I’ve received has been very positive… But at the same time, I appreciate everybody takes something different from everything they see.”
While he says there is “no connection” between the work and the ongoing migrant crisis taking place further along the Kent coast, he hopes it could inspire empathy for what’s happening out in the Channel.
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He said: “It’s an extremely tragic situation, and I don’t think ignoring it is the solution. If [this work] can foster any kind of care and sympathy for that situation, then I think that’s a good thing.”
More than 21,000 people arrived in the UK in small boats between January and September, according to government figures, with at least 45 people dying in Channel crossings this year.
Taylor also said the fact the subject is a young woman is because it draws reference from Sir John Everett Millais’s celebrated painting, on display at Tate Britain.
Pic: Jason deCaires Taylor
‘Art without questions is pointless’
Some of Taylor’s past sculptures have raised issues around the climate crisis, Brexit and the plight of those risking their lives on the perilous migration route from West Africa to Spain.
Taylor says: “Art should ask questions. They should make people think about things that should elicit emotions, that’s really critical.
“If things were ignored and if you tried to please everybody with all your artwork, I think you’d make something very benign and quite frankly, pretty pointless.”
He also feels our age of information overload could be part of the reason for the negative feedback.
“We’re so inundated with images and media, with having our phones interrupting us and screens everywhere we look that people look for divisiveness and things that cause clickbait. I think there is an element of people sort of seeking out controversy.”
Taylor said the majority of negative comments online had come from people who had not been to Canterbury and seen the work in real life, with one call for the statue’s removal coming all the way from Orkney.
Responding directly to calls for his work to be taken out of the river, he said: “People are perfectly in their rights to have [an] opinion. But I would urge them to go and see it first.”
Pic: Jason deCaires Taylor
‘A dead body doesn’t light up at night’
Chair of Canterbury Commemoration Society Stewart Ross, the charity that commissioned the work, told Sky News: “Some people find it offensive and shocking, we have no objection to that. All public art is open to discussion”.
Comparing calls for the work to be removed to the destruction of art during the Reformation, he said: “I feel strongly about this [call for censorship]. It’s what the Taliban do. If you don’t like it, don’t look.”
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Mr Ross said the “confected anger” around the sculpture was “unnecessary” and that the charity was simply “trying to do its best,” adding: “People have been comparing it to a dead body, but I have yet to meet a dead body that lights up in the night”.
Taylor, who has been working as an artist for over 25 years, has sculptures in marine locations around the world including Australia, Mexico, Grenada and Norway. Prices for his sculptures start at around £1,300.
He first donated the two original Alluvia figures to the city of Canterbury in 2008.
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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
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