''Serpent d'océan'' (lit. "Serpent of the Ocean" in French) is a work by artist

Huang Yong Ping Huáng Yǒng Pīng (; February 18, 1954 – October 20, 2019) was a Chinese-French contemporary artist and one of the most well known Chinese avant-garde artists of his time. Born in Xiamen, he was recognized as the most controversial and provoc ...

. Depicting a long

sea serpent A sea serpent or sea dragon is a type of dragon sea monster described in various mythologies, most notably Mesopotamian (Tiamat), Judaeo-Christian (Leviathan), Greek (Cetus, Echidna, Hydra, Scylla), and Norse (Jörmungandr). Mythology and folk ...

skeleton, it is installed in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

Saint-Brevin-les-Pins Saint-Brevin-les-Pins (; also ; br, Sant-Brewenn) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. It is known as the site of the serpent d'océan, a giant sea serpent sculpture by artist Huang Yong Ping. Population Histo ...

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Description

''Serpent d'océan'' is a

monumental sculpture The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for ...

made of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

, 130 m long in total. It represents the skeleton of an immense imaginary

, whose vertebrae undulate to end in an open mouth. The work is installed at the tip of the Nez-de-Chien, in Mindin, in the territory of the commune of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins in the French

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

, at the limit where the

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

joins the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It spreads out over the foreshore area: the serpent's tail is located at the low

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

limit, its head at the high tide limit. The sculpture is therefore covered and uncovered at each tide: at low tide it is possible to walk around it, but only the head and the top of the vertebrae stick out at high tide. It is intended to be gradually invaded by vegetation and marine fauna. The shape of the snake joins that of the Saint-Nazaire bridge, visible nearby; that of the vertebrae echoes the nearby ''carrelets'' (

lift net Lift nets, also called lever nets, are a method of fishing using nets that are submerged to a certain depth and then lifted out of the water vertically. The nets can be flat or shaped like a bag, a rectangle, a pyramid, or a cone. Lift nets can be ...

s).

History

The work is produced as part of the 2012 edition of the Estuaire festival and co-financed by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

through the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

. It was inaugurated on June 20, 2012.

Artist

was a contemporary artist and was a prominent member of the 1980s Chinese avant-garde movement. Born in 1954 in

Xiamen, China Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six District of the People's Republic of China, ...

, he lived in France from 1989, where he died in 2019. He favored the connection of heterogeneous meanings and often addressed the notions of mixing identity and culture. In 2016, Yong Ping made an even larger serpent measuring as part of the ''Monumenta'' series at the Grand Palais in Paris.{{Cite web , date=2018-06-25 , title=Giant Serpent Emerges From the Sea Off the Coast of France , url=https://mymodernmet.com/huang-yong-ping-serpent-d-ocean/ , access-date=2022-04-14 , website=My Modern Met , language=en

References

2012 establishments in France 2012 sculptures Outdoor sculptures Contemporary works of art Snakes in art Sea serpents Animal sculptures in France Aluminium sculptures

Description

History

Artist

See also

References