Things Are Changing

Fabricated from painted sheet steel and LED Neon Flex, this gharish public sign was due to be installed on the façade of the Royal College of Art Dyson Building in Battersea, as part of the RCA2020 degree show. While confronting concerns on the redevelopment of public leisure spaces - particularly the depletion of the once roaring outdoor lido industry of Britain - the sign also embraces the prospects of possibility, progression and change. The use of a diving figure is both a literal reference to the swimming pool, and also the embodiment of a risk-taker - taking a leap into those opportunities presented in the future. The text ‘CHANGING’, written in neon, suggests changing facilities expected at swimming pools, while simultaneously probing ideas of development and unburdened possibility. The public swimming pool was once a place of collective pleasure, health and well-being. Commemorating this rapidly disappearing history, the installation questions a future of the same qualities. 

Things Are Changing was an element within Yuxi Xiao’s larger particpatory project for the RCA2020 virtual showcase The Failure Of...

Below are digital renderings, envisaging what the sign would have looked like installed on the RCA building façade. Things Are Changing is yet to be fully installed publically. For now, while fabricated, it remains as a speculative proposal.