farmdoc's blog post number 589

This is the story of Andrew. In the last two years he’s hung over 85 red swings in various countries around the world. Because he hangs them in public places, he does it at night. Preferring not to reveal his surname, Andrew founded the Red Swing Project in 2007. His, and its, mission statement is to bring playfulness back into the world. What began as a university design assignment exploring urban intervention, has evolved into an international project that’s seen red swings ‘miraculously’ appear on four continents. Andrew places each swing as a ‘magical thing appearing overnight. He’s fascinated that in some places the swings are received as joyous gifts whilst in other places they’re seen as vandalism and cut down, one in as quickly as five minutes. Of the more than 85 he’s hung, only around 25% remain – in their original locations, because maybe people take them and hang them at home. As to the future, he says ‘all I want to do is hang swings’. It seems so, because the Red Swing Project’s website is currently down and its blog is rudimentary. But here is the video. And here is info about the first 35 swings. Good on you, Andrew. I love your work. As I love that of Luke Jerram and darling Meg of whom I wrote here.