Jay Tan (1982) UK
(the first...) (2009). Photocopy on newsprint with caption.
Untitled (Will) (2009). Photocopy on paper.
Ok, so imagine a bunch of objects, say ten or so, if you count things like a pair of skis as one object. They’re floating or sinking about in a pool. It’s an indoor pool, quite small, small enough that swimming laps is pointless and it has this large mosaic mural decorating the wall at the deep end. To imagine the mural take Guernica, neutralise it and make it less figurative (but if you must have something I’ll let you have fish/turtle-like shapes), then throw in a few more colours and whack up the saturation. That’s the mural. The rest of the poolroom is that beige pool tile. Bright blue pool tiles in the actual pool of course.
Then lets say there are women. Seven of them. They’re all about the same age as my mother (I’m late twenties) and they’re in their swimsuits, in the pool. Some are underwater and they’re nudging or holding or pushing these ten or so objects in place, but what with the nature of water and everything, they resist the place they’ve been assigned.
They’re not aware that we are watching them. They just go about their business, if indeed it is business.
