Swimming: “Drawing laps”: Leanne Shapton and the culture of swimming

The Berlin Stadtbad Mitte is “bright and unusually airy for an indoor swimming pool,” writes a Canadian woman. And further: “In 1945, the bath was hit by two Allied bombs – possibly dropped by my grandfather or his friends – which did not explode.”

Maybe Leanne Shapton went swimming with me at the Stadtbad Mitte a few years ago. In her book »Draw tracks«, published in German in 2012, the former competitive swimmer writes, among other things, about pools that she has visited – in Sweden, Switzerland, England and Canada. An artist friend of hers recommended that she visit the old hall in Charlottenburg and my favorite pool in Mitte in Berlin.

Her magical book is about much more than drawing lines – about passion, discipline – and art. With a good dose of self-irony, the artist and author of Canadian-Filipino origin tries to understand why she fell for this sport. She defines swimming and competition, describes a childhood and youth that followed the dictum of training. “I remember the simple fact that when I swam I was always in pain.” Pain in the knee, when breathing, in the arms and shoulders, in the back. Only during competitions, and sometimes during training, did she forget the pain.

Why should you do this to yourself? Why set the alarm clock for half past four for years and head out for training (especially on cold winter nights)? The now 50-year-old answers these questions on 324 pages. In addition to reflections on swimming, there are photos of her swimsuit collection and the author’s watercolors. The portraits of swimmers, smells (!) or swimming pools appear – how could it be otherwise – blurry. Shapton plays, quoting from literature, fine art, photography and illustration. She compares, analyzes and philosophizes. Artists and writers constantly question themselves, she writes, she’s used to that. Self-hatred, doubts and mental blocks. “Athletes, on the other hand, just keep going.”

The entertaining and achronologically structured book encourages you to surf through the marine imagery of Winslow Homer or Laura Knight. Or walking in amazement through London’s Titanic Museum, learning what Swedish swimming goggles are or why swimmers sometimes wear two swimsuits on top of each other.

Shapton has left the world of competition, but his feeling for the water remains. The open sea is scary for her, as it is for most competitive swimmers. I have never found what makes swimming competitions so sensually described, nor experienced in such detail how swimmers feel between the stop mats and the swim-out pool. “On dry land, I constantly bump into things, stub my toes, and miss chairs,” she writes.

Drawing has become her new obsession. Leanne Shapton feels most comfortable horizontally, with her feet up. I see her lying on a sofa, drawing a swimming pool.