"In my quest to track down the original swimmers from the 1968 swimming final at the Mexico Olympics, nowhere could I find any trace of the two former-East German swimmers, Marianne Seydel and Sabine Steinbach. Drawing upon conceptual art strategies in part inspired by artists Sophie Calle and Vito Acconci, I hired a German private eye in a failed attempt to locate them and hopefully to connect us.
However, although he was successful, under German privacy laws he was unable to give me their details, and neither of the two women opted to make contact with me. Instead, this culminated in my visit to the swimming pool in Chemnitz, Germany, where Marianne Seydel and Sabine Steinbach trained for the 1968 Olympics under the watchful eye of their Stasi coaches.
Vicariously inserting myself into their stories, I swam in this pool with a heightened awareness of the biopolitics, power, and ideologies that still permeate the space."
The swimmer and the spy (2017)
Installation view of The swimmer and the spy (2017) (left) and Recalling Tui (2016) in The paradox of failure: sport, competition and contemporary art, RM Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau (2021)
Other works in this series
Lighting an old flame (2017)
A homage to Norma Enriqueta Basilio, the first woman to light the Olympic flame, and a celebration of the ageing female body.
How to wear a disguise (2017)
The artist attempts to map out the spy disguise instructions of Stasi training manuals.
Stadium walk (opening ceremony) (2018)
The artist strides into the Olympic stadium in Mexico and is overcome by emotion.
The swimming race (Mexico City) (2018)
The artist attempts to restage the final of the women's 400 metres individual medley from the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
Recalling Tui (2016)
The artist restages from memory a phone call made to their childhood hero, the swimmer Tui Shipston.
Space-Girl Dance (2018)
The artist restages a dance that the actress Raquel Welch performed in 1968, in front of Mexico's modernist monuments.
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