Jason de Caires reacts to his sculptures being destroyed by the Maldivian Authorities
Last week, a sculpture museum at a luxury island resort in The Maldives was destroyed after the government deemed it anti-Islamic.
The Coralarium, created by British artist and environmentalist Jason deCaires Taylor, was a steel cube with 30 life-size sculptures within it. Some stood at tidal level, while others were beneath the ocean.
Maldivian police deemed the artwork ”human form” sculptures, the depiction of which is discouraged under Islamic law, and It was demolished last week using axes and an angle grinder.
Hardline Islam rejects any man-made depiction of the human form. But that’s been increasingly hard to enforce in the modern world.
Jason DeCaires Taylor insists his statues had no religious meaning whatsoever. Instead, they sought to capture the simplicity of the human form and behaviour.
Jason deCaires Taylor writes:
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