Caroline Bagenal: Swimming Sculptures

With her uncanny sculptures attached to her body, Bagenal takes to the water and swims with them, activating and transforming the work as it marks the movements of her body and the water’s currents.

In August 2021, Bagenal fell off her bike, broke both arms, and cracked her jaw. Swimming outdoors was an important element in her recovery and is the inspiration for this series of work. Now freed from gravity, her body became a receptor with heightened senses and, for a time, just another being in the river’s ecosystem. The swimming sculptures are made from recycled woven plastic, bubble wrap and other materials that float. They derive in part from the artist’s embroidered photographs, which function as part of her creative process—a kind of drawing with thread which she uses to imagine future sculptures.

Caroline Bagenal was born in Scotland, and now lives in Cumbria, UK. She has an MFA in Painting and an MA in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been shown widely in both the UK and the USA, including The Maritime Museum in Liverpool and OIA Gallery, New York. Bagenal has received numerous awards and artist residencies, most recently in 2023 at Cove Park, Scotland.