JOAN COSTA | COLOURS OF WATER

About

Few artists live up to their name as Joan Costa does - enhancing the meaning and our under- standing of the word ‘Coast'. A sculptor from the Island of Mallorca (Spain), his researches into the natural world have led him to the study of water — from almost every possible viewpoint. Its boundaries, the space it inhabits, its form, movement, its social and human aspects. Now its col- our and sound are foregrounded in this recent work to be exhibited in London and Amsterdam, with additional shows planned in Germany and the USA. The journey will end in Palmyra Sculp- ture Centre, Palma de Mallorca in 2014. The exhibition ‘Colours of Water' was partly born out of a need to increase awareness of the natural environment in a way that a sculptor understands it, supplying a different viewpoint from the ecological rhetoric we have all come to take almost for granted. Inspired by the effects of the movement of water on seaweed, the continuous swaying motion of the sea on these delicate vegetable forms, Joan Costa's interpretation of the natural environment of the Balearic Islands stems directly from that which surrounds him, like a ripe fruit stems from a tree. The collection of sculptures and paintings that make up this exhibition are a synthesis of the curved and undulating shapes of water and posidonia, a sea grass found in the Mediterranean. All these works are deeply rooted in the natural and historical world of the Mediterranean and seem to form part of the essence of the region.