LADA Screens #2: Amy Sharrocks

LADA Screens #2

SWIM by Amy Sharrocks

2014, HD video, 31’ 19”

Available to view online between 17 August to 31 August 2015

Watch Now

About

SWIM was one of a series of works looking at people and their relationship with water in an urban setting. Taking place on 12 July 2007, ​it was an open invitation, all access swim across London from Tooting Bec Lido to Hampstead Heath Ponds. The Independent commented on the ‘cosmic oddness’ of SWIM, this film documents the day and the journey through London.

SWIM was inspired as much by Burt Lancaster’s odyssey across the American landscape in the ‘The Swimmer’ (1959), as by the Keystone Kops and Benny Hill. This artwork offered a very British response to Frank Perry’s film at the start of the 21st Century, extending the experience beyond Lancaster's very male purpose and the concentration on the body beautiful. SWIM was an inclusive, participatory celebration with both male and female swimmers of all ages, sizes and abilities, exploring and ideas of freedom in this dream of swimming the capital.

Read an essay about SWIM by Amy Sharrocks. 

Amy Sharrocks is a live artist, sculptor and film-maker who invites people to come on journeys in which their own experience, communication and expression are a vital part. Undertaking these journeys with a sense of humour, joy and risk, Amy creates work that is rich, unpredictable and different every time.

Sharrocks' publications SWIM and Museum of Water are available for sale on Unbound.

Upcoming works include; DAYTRIP and Museum of Water taking place in Hastings at the end of August 2015, as part of the Coastal Currents festival. 

Other LADA Screens launch events and screenings

Shaun Caton 
A Glimpse Inside the Grotto, online from 15 – 29 July 2015
Launch event Wednesday 15th July, 7pm at the White Building

Katherine Araniello
The Dinner Party Revisited, online from 9 – 23 September 2015
Launch event Wednesday 9th September, 7.30pm at the White Building