Lara Odell
The first in this series of pool prints was One Feet Deep, images of an outdoor public pool in the suburbs of Buffalo, during winter. One Feet Deep (9 images altogether) was a central part of my show Impatient Pixel, at Big Orbit Gallery, May 4 to June 23, 2002. The drained pool, out of season, intrigues me for its awkwardness: once empty it becomes useless, somehow displaced. Passing by we should be respectful of its silence. An empty public pool no longer beckons to people as a recreational and relaxing space, a false tropics. An empty winter pool reminds us of the absence of summer, the lack of warmth and life.
 When the snow comes to Buffalo and coats everything but the sides of the pool, the aqua-blue painted walls are doubly exposed. Not only has the deceptive paintjob been revealed, one designed to lend the enclosure a Caribbean aura, but the intense whiteness of the snow shines a light on that deception. I coated the colored surfaces with an acrylic medium—the total effect is that the image both reflects (the shiny color) and absorbs (the snowy whiteness) the viewer’s attention.
In One Feet Deep, the cropped scene disturbs our sense of depth perception. The whiteness, I think, is “blinding,” so that the ground beneath the viewer becomes unstable. I want the viewer to be enveloped by the whiteness. The scene betrays a seasonal uncertainty, and produces optical uncertainties—about what recedes and what is foregrounded. Above all, a snowy pool represents a calm, uncluttered and slow existence—seemingly an insult to the busy world around it, yet, for that very reason, ultimately more of a “vacation spot” than in the summer.
 Next in the series is Public Pools. For these too I positioned the camera to crop out the sky, focusing mainly on the pool’s architecture. As I continue to photograph public pools, I find myself increasingly attracted to their blatantly artificial architecture. When the pool is drained, the exposed white and blue slabs of paint are revealed, along with the red and black lines, giving the area a formal and orderly quality. In the prints I am submitting for the show the viewer is positioned at the edge of the pool, on the margin, so that the pool is only an implied presence, and the formal qualities of the paint, cement and pool accessories are intensified.
In the Public Pools series I like how the illusion of luxury is compromised by the budget accessories and the often overused, neglected and murky water. In short, the conflict is between the fantasy of the pool space and the reality. As well, I like to present these pools as decorative aspects of our culture rather than as something with obvious use value.
For the Hotel Pools series, I photographed indoor semi-public pools. Such spaces feel humid, like public baths or wet saunas. These tightly enclosed spaces give a sense of “sanctuary,” with light coming in through windows and reflecting on the pool water and the tile walls. Even though there is water in the pool, I did not photograph them with figures because I want to represent the hotel pool as an idea. If there was a person swimming in the pool, the attention would go to the swimmer. Attention should instead go to the fantasy of the hotel pool being a private space. Images of pools without people swimming highlight the pool as a concept, a state of mind.
Lara Odell was born and raised in Long Beach, CA, and presently lives in Alfred, New York. She is currently working at the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University as a collaborator and technical assistant to visiting resident artists, as well as instructing an Art History tutorial. She received a BFA (1998) from Alfred University in the Electronic Arts, and an interdisciplinary MAH in Media Studies and English from SUNY Buffalo (2000). Her videos, prints and drawings have been exhibited nationally and internationally in such places as Beijing, China, Novosibirsk, Russia and Havana, Cuba, as well as on line. She is now working on a series of digital prints of indoor and outdoor hotel swimming pools, whose bargain architecture offers an idea of sanctuary—however riddled with decay and neglect. She is also designing urban (and sub-urban) camouflage clothing (with collaborator Monica Duncan).
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