NightSwimming: About

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Cortada created this 16’ ft long ceramic tile mural of seahorses for the exterior wall of the South Miami Plaza building. Seahorses are esteemed for their grace and their unique role reversal, wherein the male partner gives birth. The distinctive “crown” on top of their heads is as unique as a human fingerprint. The artist invites you to contemplate the elaborate and sophisticated life roaming beneath the waves.

SM_nightswimming_1Xavier Cortada, “NightSwimming (rendering),” 4′ x 16′, ceramic 2014
A public art project at South Miami Plaza (Miami-Dade Housing Authority), Miami, FL

Artist’s Statement

Biscayne Bay holds a special place in my heart. As a child, my family would spend weekends in Bear Cut Beach and Key Biscayne. That is where we first connected with Miami marine life, where I saw my first mangrove, where I first saw a horseshoe crab crawl on the sand. Although we lived inland, that connection to the coast transported our immigrant family to the homeland, to my father’s fishing village in the northern part of Cuba.

This exploration also engendered a lasting sense of love for the environment.

In creating this work, I drew on those connections.  Knowing that they were universal.

By depicting the marine life, the natural aquatic beauty that surrounds our peninsula, I wanted to transport the residents not only to a beautiful nautical setting, but also to childhood memories where they, too, would frolic and play on the beach and experience marine life. Where they would wrap themselves in the sea.  And the sea would, slowly, reveal its creatures.  And its mysteries.

This entire building is filled with public art pieces that try to capture that emotion, through storytelling, to connect the creatures that live beneath the waves with the people who enjoy those waves.

This mural piece is called Night Swimming. It shows seahorses swimming in the water.  They do so at night.  Guided by their own light and instinct.  For a moment, they pause, as waves swirl around them with endless energy.  They are in sync, aligned.  Taking it in.  Being in the moment.  And, ready to continue their dance.

The camaraderie of the seahorses resembles the lively and sociable residents of this community. These iconic creatures, which swim in Biscayne Bay just a few miles away, have several symbolic characteristics. Each seahorse sports a unique coronet on its head; no two seahorses have the same coronet, just like no two humans are exactly the same.

Seahorses also partake in a significant courtship to find a mate. Swimming side-by-side, changing colors and holding tails as they wheel around in a dance, the seahorses’ charming courtship reminds us of the simple beauties in life.

I want this mural to be an invitation for the residents to also dance with one another.  I remember telling them so as I presented them with proposed sketches during the community meetings at the onset of the project.

Creating seahorses for this commission prompted me to further explore human impact on this animal and its habitat, the sea grasses.  This mural was the precursor for a participatory art effort to protect Biscayne Bay and its ecosystem.

I used the seahorse as the iconic, charismatic animal for the 2014 poster I created to celebrate the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves’ 40th anniversary.  I did so to engage people in protecting their natural habitat, the sea grasses, which are harmed by recreational boating, pollution, and dredging.

I knew I couldn’t make folks fall in love with sea grass.  But if they fell in love with the seahorse, maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t destroy its home.

Maybe, like the seahorses in this mural, they would pause.

Reflect.

And, then, just like that, continue the dance.

The seahorse dance.