Aeolian Flow

How many of you remember the West St Leonards Bathing Pool? I’ve only seen photos of it, writes Zelly Restorick, but I met someone a couple of days ago, who’d been there as a child. “It was an Olympic size swimming pool, filled with sea water,’ Janet Harding told me. ‘And there was a diving pool and in the winter, people used to roller skate around the outside of it. It was a place where people came together.”

‘I went there with my Dad,’ Janet told me. ‘I remember I felt so tiny. The space felt really daunting. Years later, when I came back to West St Leonards, my interest in the space was reawakened. It’s now a beautiful green space.’

Janet had offered me a postcard headed with the words, ‘Aeolian Flow’, telling me about her event happening on the site of the Old Bathing pool. My first question was to ask what ‘Aeolian’ means?

‘It’s the sound made by the wind’, she said. ‘I noticed that this space catches the wind. In my installation, I’ll be using a lot of different hued silks – on bamboo. I don’t really want to describe it too much’, she smiled. ‘I want people to come along and look.’

I’m wondering if we’ll be able to look – and maybe also hear – an Aeolian Flow, as the wind may choose to join in and create a hopefully gentle, rather than tempestuous, symphony of silks.

Janet’s intention with the installation is ‘to evoke the memory of water and what was there before’.

The West St Leonards Bathing Pool was another of Sydney Little’s creations. He was mentioned in my article about ‘Labyrinth’ on the sea front – and now here he is again. The Concrete King of the South East. Hello Sydney, your memory lives on, even though your pool, unfortunately, does not.

Janet has put together a great programme of events to accompany her installation, with the help of gifted artist, Simon Spare. You are all invited to bring your blankets and food baskets along for a community picnic, where you can sit amongst the fluttering silks. Animals and instruments welcomed. You’ll have the opportunity to explore Tai Chi with Master Ray Hall. You can participate in a Flashdance Silent Disco, where you bring your own mobile listening device of choice and then dance, silently, to your own music, surrounded by others doing exactly the same thing. And finally, you could cool yourself down with a slow, calming, meditative walk and draw at low-tide.

‘And it’s all for free,’ smiled Janet. ‘Anybody can come along. Somebody might not like art, but maybe will see the art as a kind of side effect. I want all people to get together, not just people who know about art.

‘And everyone can join in the dancing,’ Janet added. ‘It’s a great way to keep fit and have fun at the same time. Everyone can dance.’ She feels the same way about people’s ability to draw.

‘I believe everyone can draw. I want to break down that barrier that some people have inside them, thinking they can’t do it, just because of what someone said to them at school. On the meditative walk and draw, it’s up to the person themselves how they respond and feel. I just want people to come along and get involved by being there.’

If you feel like exploring your drawing skills on the low tide walk, bring along paper, pens, pencils and any other mediums you’d like to use.  Or just have a meander along the beach and take a look at the artwork nature creates in the sand everyday.

Janet Harding is an artist and cultural practitioner, who studied fine art at Central St Martins and now creates installations and paints.  She focuses on ‘hope and the inclusive idea that community can benefit and give support in our often disenfranchised times.’

‘I use whatever medium I feel is appropriate. In the past, I’ve made a man-size Buddha out of beer cans and a living moss sculpture, which I needed to spray everyday.’

She worked for 9 months as assistant to the Norwegian artist, Kjell Torriset and was exhibited at St Leonards Warrior Square Station for a while with an installation called ‘HOPE’, based around a Buddhist poem.

‘I respond to places and what they mean,’ said Janet. ‘I pick up on the feeling that is there. Or has been there.’

Janet would like to hear from you if you also have memories of the pool and she invites you to participate in creating an archive, to help preserve this era of West St Leonards history.

‘Everyone’s welcome to this event,’ smiled Janet. ‘the more the merrier. I hope everyone comes along and mixes. It’s because we don’t get to know one another, we can sometimes feel frightened of people we see as different to ourselves. People used to get together a lot in the days of the Bathing Pool. I want to recreate that same feeling of us all coming together in a sense of community.’

To get to ‘Aeolian Flow’, walk along the seafront towards Bexhill to the end of the promenade and you’ll see beach huts on your left and the site on your right. You won’t be able to miss it. The space will have been magically transformed from green grass to silken sea water

Dates and times, so you know when to do the things you want to do!

Art Installation                             Saturday Sept 8 through to Sunday Sept 16

Community Picnic Saturday       Saturday Sept 8, noon – 5pm

Tai Chi with Master Ray Hall     Sundays Sept 9 and16, 10.30am – 12.30pm

Flashdance Silent Disco               Sunday Sept 16, 3pm – 4pm

Low-Tide Walk & Draw               Sunday Sept 16, 4pm til you want to go home!

For more information, contact Janet Harding:
Email : jh.anna@virgin.net
Phone : 01424 773097 / 07905 359038

 

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