Barbados Hosts Underwater Art Project at SS Stavronikita

The SS Stavronikita lies at the bottom of the ocean at 13.8 N, 59.38 W, just off the Caribbean island of Barbados. It's the spot that Austrian photographer and diver Andreas Franke has discovered and chosen to stage his next exhibition, beginning December 2012.

The Stavronikita fell victim to a fire more than 20 years ago, and it was lowered into the ocean, where corals, sponges and shells took root to the ship as an artificial reef. This "parade of life" conquered the mind of Andreas Franke when diving on the premises of the SS Stavronikita. The Viennese artist, famous for his meticulously construed photographic stagings, decided to make the Greek freighter into his next stage and thus the successor to the USS Vandenberg. He created surprising, bizarre and equally bewitching images based on the Rococo era in Europe by combining photographs of the wreck with sceneries produced in a studio.

Magnets have been attached onto the pictures, which were then fastened onto the ship with great care taken not to disturb the ecological balance of marine life or to damage the outer skin of the Stavronikita.

You can dive to find the pictures on board the SS Stavronikita from Dec. 27, 2012 until the end of April 2013. For more information, visit thesinkingworld.com.