Chew the Float Private View

I've been working at a slightly insane rate recently, what with teaching, writing essays for my Masters, poster commissions and making my work for the 'Chew the Float' exhibition at Victoria Baths. Thankfully I am starting to see the light and everything is finally coming together. Below are some photos of the exhibition including my entry which is a length of wooden bunting which reads 'Not Waving But Drowning'. The statement that went with my piece went as so:

'Victoria Baths inspired me to create something that recalled childhood memories of swimming at my own local baths in Salford. Unsurprisingly my most vivid memory is when I came close to drowning at the age of 7. Waving cockily to my Mum before diving into the deep end I found myself entangled in my rubber ring, trapped underwater, gasping for air. Luckily Mum was able to translate my SOS and saved me from a watery end. However, the experience left me with an overwhelming fear of water for many years.
'Not Waving but Drowning', a reference to the Stevie Smith poem, acts as a sign to both warn and celebrate. The warning goes out to others like my 7-year-old self, giddy with a false sense of invincibility, to take care, but the sign also celebrates overcoming fear to participate in the joys of swimming, an activity that thankfully no longer fills me with the sense of dread I felt as a child.'

My poster greeting visitors on their approach to the baths (below).


A 'hipstamatic' impression of my piece (below) courtesy of Nathan.

In close-up (below).

Some of my very talented friend's work (below).

Emma Baker

Andy Gornall

Rachael Barker

Matt Davies

Chew the Float

As a member of the Cottonopolis Arts Collective I am going to be showing some of my art work at Victoria Baths in Manchester this September. The baths is an incredible building which houses two original Victorian Swimming Pools that are currently undergoing extensive restoration. The brief is a site specific one and although I am yet to decide what I am going to make for it I have had a more pressing issue to overcome first as the organisers gave me the job of producing a poster advertising the show.

The name of the exhibition is 'Chew the Float' which was inspired by one of the organiser's childhood memories of swimming lessons when he would nervously chew at the float. With this as a strong image to go off and because I have been to the baths many times and have quite a few photos I had plenty to go off.

This photo (below) of one of the changing cubicles that line the edge of the pool stood out as a possible background for the poster. Once I had drawn this I made a sketch of a boy holding a swimming float up in front of his face and positioned him outside of the cubicle. Once I had got this right I set about putting the two together.

First attempt to put together the final poster (below).

Final poster (below) with added 'grunge' so it reflected the rust and peeling paint that gives the baths their nostalgic charm. The font was also selected for it's old fashioned quality.