The Swimmer, 2015

9-channel video installation

dimensions variable

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9-channel video installation based on John Cheever’s 1964 short story The Swimmer, in which the protagonist swims a river of pools through his suburban neighborhood.

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A river of pools, in a Southern California suburban neighborhood, were identified using Google maps. Permission to swim and record was solicited door-to-door. The performance was shot by a drone.

 

Monitors circle the gallery, spaced to mimic the distances between the real world pools. The swimmer enters a monitor, swims the length of the pool, and exits the other end of the pool/monitor, only to re-appear a short while later in the next monitor. The swimmer moves from pool to pool in an endless loop around the gallery.