Palma.Few artists live up to their name as Joan Costa does - enhancing the meaning and our understanding of the word Coast'.
The Majorcan sculptor's 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 colour 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 Sculpture Centre, Palma 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 Balearics 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.
The watercolour' paintings were made using heavy handmade paper, lithographic inks and acrylic paint and have an almost sculptural dimension.
One can practically feel the movement of the water around the sea grasses, a feeling reinforced by the use of colour.
The main indoor sculpture of the exhibition is the Sea Oracle II - in an edition of 8 - consisting of 15 bronze sculptures on a bronze plinth with water continuously flowing around the base. The posidonia reach out to the universe in a spiral form - like a modern temple searching for the light, as if questioning our origin and our future.
The outdoor installation Sound of Colours' is made out of 50 branches of the wild olive tree, cast in aluminum and anodized in 4 different colours. The installation forms a colourful forest in a green world, resonating in the wind, producing waves of sound.
Costa's works reach out to us, impressing us with the need for understanding our place in nature and making clear the essential role that art plays in maintaining a sound and sane world, inside and out.
This is exactly where Palmyra and Joan Costa found their common basis for organising these itinerant exhibitions.
The exhibition Colours of Water will be exhibited in two spaces in England:
The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, Ockley, Surrey, from June 30 to September 30, 2013.
Installation Sound of Colours'.
The 99 Mount Gallery, London, from today to the July 10 2013.