This rock is so fascinating. I mean, of course, it’s fun that it’s a shark made out of a rock. It’s got that WHAM. I GOT YOUR ATTENTION appeal. But then, looking more closely… the thing is covered with mosaic tiles. LOL. Like, really?
This photograph is taken by Andrew Huff and posted on his Instagram. (Andrew corrected me after I published this post. These are mirror tiles. So this is a disco party shark‽ Even better!)
What I find fascinating about this rock:
A) That someone would take the time to do this
Awesome.
B) The vision to do this to a beach rock
“Hey, let’s bring some mosaic tiles to the beach and see what we can do with them.” Like, what? Nobody brings mosaic tiles to a beach.
C) The coupling of the medium with the subject
Mosaic tiles to depict a shark. Again. I would never have thought of mosaic tiles as the perfect medium to depict a shark. Let alone something three-dimensional. When I think of mosaic tiles, I think of a few things. (oh boy, point c is going to get delightfully long.)
1. First I think of Jim Bachor
The guerilla street artist that fills in Chicago potholes with mosaics. Funny how he comes to mind first before all the rich history of mosiac tiles.
My sculpture professor in the 1990s, Kevin Strandberg, is a huge fan of Barcelona, a city covered in mosaics. He gave a sculpture assignment to make something with mosaics.
6. The mosaic cube I made in sculpture class in 1995
It was a crazy mix of mosaic fame, transparencies of trees, and a weird welded metal plant in the middle illuminated by a red light (blog post). So yeah, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by a three-dimensional object covered in mosaics, because I made one many years ago)
7. Hypercard
While I was typing this out, I got distracted onto other things. One of the sites I visited on the side was a site for a current-day program that is able to run HyperCard stacks. morphing.cloud/hypercard the background kinda looks like mosaic tiles.
The texture of the mosaics depicts a shark very well.
That hard surface is what I imagine a shark’s exterior would feel like. Granted, a shark’s skin probably feels softer, like a fish. But since sharks are seen as so tough, their hard, sharp exterior matches how we FEEL about sharks. The artist wisely did not use mosaics on the mouth or teeth — only on the skin. So the mosaics are definitely about depicting the skin. The mouth and teeth are left to be their gritty texture — fitting for the inside of a shark’s dangerous mouth.
E. The shape of the rock
Perhaps this project didn’t start with someone randomly bringing tiles to the beach. Perhaps it started when someone spotted this rock, and saw a shark. And then they developed ideas on how to make it look more like a shark. That’s the most likely process, I think. As straightforward as that might seem, it’s quite impressive that someone would visualize a shark in this rock. It’s brilliant how the shark comes out of the water to attack the land dwellers.
F. The composition
For this photo, it’s all set up so you see the scene perfectly. Rock shoreline, shark comes ashore, the water in the background. This is such a nicely laid-out composition. It tells all the elements of the story in one pic. Kudos to Andrew for snapping this pic just as the water was crashing onto the shore. That bit of foam on the water makes it look like the shark is leaping out.
Ok, so I wrote all that before I actually researched what that rock is. Oh, the joys of interpreting art before you actually find out what the art is.
This is the iconic painted “shark rock” along the Northwestern University lakefill in Evanston, Illinois. Students and alumni traditionally decorate these rocks along the shoreline, making this menacing-looking, tile-textured shark a beloved and frequently photographed fixture of the campus waterfront. [1, 2, 3]
Here’s how the shark rock looked in 2023 (or at least, this is when the image was published on Unsplash). No mosaic tiles on it yet. Maybe it’s the unfocused softness of the photo, but this version of the shark looks friendly.
From Wikimedia in 2019, a bit more of the context of the other rocks.
After looking at these photos, I have another point about the genius of the tiling on this rock.
G. Permanence
These additional photos show how the paint jobs on the surrounding rocks change over time. Yet, the shark rock remains a shark rock. Probably because it’s so cool, it must remain a shark. By covering part of the rock with mosaic tiles, it further encourages people to keep this rock as a shark. Someone might be less likely to paint over mosaic tiles. May the shark rock remain there for years to come.