They didn’t speak about the swap. But the next day, when Theodora showed up to clean the garden shed, she wore a bright pink scrunchie in her hair. And Coco arrived early, with a labelled toolbox and a list.
Communal spectatorship and political resonance Theodora Day and Coco Lovelock invite audiences into participatory relations rather than passive consumption. Sometimes spectators occupy poolside benches; other times they are invited into the water itself. This shifting duty between watching and being watched erodes hierarchical performer/audience distinctions and proposes an ethics of shared vulnerability. Politically, staging queer performance in civic pools contests the heteronormative regulation of public spaces. Pools historically enforce decorum, segregate by gendered swim times, and carry implicit norms about who belongs. By enacting queerness in these sites, Lovelock and Day reclaim public commons and insist on visibility that is not commodified but communal. Their works thus function as micro-utopias: temporary reconfigurations of social relations that model alternative modes of care, pleasure, and mutual recognition. sisswap coco lovelock and theodora day pool work
Image credits: Photo of Bluewave Community Pool (© Bluewave), Coco’s “Safety Shuffle” snapshot (© Coco Lovelock), Theodora’s “Eco‑Splash” floaties (© Theodora Day). They didn’t speak about the swap