The Everyday Olympian

The “Everday Olympian” is a fine art / documentary series of portraits of swimmers the moment they step from the swimming pool after exercising.

The work will be undertaken at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, ready for exhibition in 2012. The Mountbatten Centre is an Olympic standard training facility built to coincide with the Olympics 2012. As a potential training centre for international teams it also serves as a public swimming pool.

Deakin and Petterd wrote:

“When you swim, you feel your body for what it mostly is, water and your body begins to move with the water around it. Swimming is not an activity where the surroundings disappear; it is an activity where the environment is the focus, the corporeal sensations of it all-encompassing. It is also an environment in which swimmers are isolated and alone”

The work will create an alternative Olympic narrative, raising questions and exploring themes surrounding the human condition such as perceived physical perfection, isolation and vulnerability.

long after the hype surrounding the 2012 Olympics have died down and life returns to normal, the facilities that were built as training camps for the athletes will remain, continuing to be used by communities and individuals for years to come, individuals that in their own way are the “Everyday Olympians”.