Saguaro

SAGUARO is a 10-foot tall stainless steel sculpture of a cactus designed to promote thriving marine life designed and constructed by the team of Ghazal Ghazi, Bill Baron and Michael Ramirez. The saguaro cactus is a unique, famous, and distinct cactus that only grows in the Sonoran Desert, which extends into southern Arizona and the city of Tucson. The artist believes having a sculpture of a saguaro cactus on the bottom of the ocean floor will offer a unique juxtaposition carrying multiple layers of interpretation. Ghazi explains, “For one, representing the image of a plant synonymous with dry, desert heat and an environment where water is a scarce and precious resource in an underwater art museum will have divers/visitors do a double-take, since a cactus might very well be the last thing a diver would be thinking of as they swim in the ocean. Also, it encourages divers to reflect on how precious and scarce water is in other places around the world, even as they are literally immersed in water itself. This carries with it an implied value of stewardship, ecology, and sustainability. Furthermore, given how the sculpture will promote marine life and reef life on the actual body of the sculpture itself, it will also be a reminder of the resilience and diversity of life. Despite the desert’s stereotypical reputation as a barren place, it is actually teeming with life, and saguaros themselves provide shelter and refuge to many creatures in the Sonoran Desert, just as the sculpture would to marine life underwater.”