laps and rainbows

yesterday i went to the pool. it was the first time i'd been in years. i spent a long time there, just sitting and watching the swimmers. it was a really fine day and the pool seemed quite busy for the middle of the day. i've decided it's time for me to have a small rest from life and not feel guilty about not doing a lot in a day, if i feel that's what i need right now, just to give myself some space. also I've found that doing certain activities in the middle of the day is a very different experience to doing things when everybody else is finished work and also doing them. like, going for a swim, doing grocery shopping, going to see a movie... it's interesting.

anyway, so i bought a pair of goggles and did some laps in the slow lane. my body had to re-teach itself how to swim properly again, like i said, it's been years. but of course, those skills are innate, it took seconds. what i liked about it was the repetitive nature of it, just stroke after stroke, lap after lap, it's very calming and non-taxing on your brain. i also, ironically, got really thirsty and had no water.

swimming like this reminded me of the Matthew Ngui artwork at the John Curtin Gallery for the BEAP festival a couple of years ago. it was a piece that had stuck with me, I really enjoyed it, maybe because of the long dark room with a big calming blue screen of water, a bit like going into an aquarium, something I'm also very interested in lately.

Matthew Ngui, Swimming: at least 8 points of view, digital video/sound

because it was such a nice day the sun reflected through the water and i was struck by how much that aesthetic embodied a lot of what i'm interested in, visually, in my art practice. i know it's quite simple, but i'm really drawn to pure light, which leads, subsequently, to colour. and water, as i noticed while swimming, interacts beautifully with light, producing the most natural arrangement of colours, the spectrum. little rainbows, everywhere. nothing especially profound, but how often do we really allow ourselves to appreciate how nice simple light interaction is?

I found this here, it's by an artist called Andy Gilmore, who also appears to be all about the spectrummmmmmm.