After 18 back-breaking hours painting the floor of Herne Hill's pedestrian tunnel you'd think we'd have learned our lesson. But no. We've just dedicated over 200 man - and woman! - hours to filling Brockwell Lido (a larger-than-olympic-sized pool) with words. And it may be the combination of chronic fatigue, daily drenchings and toxic paint fumes, but very fine it looks too. These memories of water, gathered from hundreds of South Londoners - and a generous sprinkling of overseas lido-lovers - are slowly sinking below the waterline as the pool is filled for the summer. They'll be there for the whole of the swimming season, reflecting the light back into the pool and encouraging bathers to explore the breadth and depths of people's feelings about water. The shallow end contains lighter, more playful memories, while the deep end is where to go for darker more mysterious things...
We're currently working on a time-lapse film which shows the thousands of words appearing around the walls - not to mention the vast amounts of weather that the English spring threw at us (hail, sleet, rain, thunder, lightning, gales, showers, squalls, drizzle... you name it; we even got some sunshine - just to remind us what we were missing). When we're done in techie-land we'll put it up here. Promise.
Thank you to all the aquaphiles and -phobes who shared their beautiful, funny, scary and strange watery memories with us - enjoy seeking them out. A big thanks also, to everyone who turned up with provisions and encouragement throughout the ordeal. Sorry, we mean installation period. And finally, a huge thank you to Lawlor - and his new shoes! - for grafting so tirelessly with us. Miss Walshe would be proud.
The pool opens to the public on 3rd May. Hope to see you all there.