DANCE PARK

REMEMBERING “CLUB SWAMP” - A PROJECT CELEBRATING THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
2024 (projected completion date 2026)

PROJECT STATEMENT

As an artist, as a member of the East Hampton community, and as a onetime patron of Club Swamp and The Annex, this project means a great deal to me. Of course it is an exciting opportunity to create something extraordinary on a unique site, but it is also a project celebrating a time and place with which I am intimately connected.

When I first met with Tom House and members of the Hamptons Pride Design Committee about creating something on Wainscott Green, the new park designed by Edwina Von Gal on the site where Club Swamp once stood, it was clear that the committee had been thoughtful in considering their goals for the project. They identified three aspects or “strands'' that the design needed to address — social area, memorial, and historical marker. These strands provided me with a valuable framework, and as I progressed these strands developed as distinct but interdependent parts. 

A social area: The Dance Floor

The work had me reflecting on the heyday of Club Swamp, and on my own experiences from those times. What I remembered most was the music and the dancing. These were the disco days, and gay men, lesbians, and other LGBTQ+ people were coming together in open celebration of who we were, often for the first time in our lives — it was exhilarating for me at 18, and I can only imagine what it must have meant to older generations. 

It seemed to me that bringing back the Swamp’s dance floor as a space for people to meet, gather, and — on occasion — maybe even dance, would be a fitting way to honor the spirit of that place and time. 

My memories of the club’s interior have long since faded, so I was excited to see the original architectural plans for the building. The design was a perfect square divided along a diagonal axis, creating identical triangular halves — one containing the bar, the other the dance floor. It was a satisfying and clean composition based on simple geometry, which also made its way into the graphics used to promote the club.

Built of natural materials, used in traditional ways, the proposed dance floor will be located on the same spot, and with the same dimensions, as the original, but while the original was sunken, the reconstructed dance floor will be a raised platform, a pedestal for all who occupy it. Made of decking, and with the springiness of wood, it will not only be pleasant to sit, stand, or walk on, but a fun place to dance as well. Inscribed strips of stone running between sections of decking will proclaim the titles of classic songs that defined the era. I imagine that walking across the floor while reading titles like “Boogie Wonderland,” “Heart of Glass,” and “I Will Survive,” the melodies will seem to echo. 

Although the new design for Wainscott Green did not anticipate a monument on the site of the old club, the layout of the new park and the location of the dance floor comfortably coexist. In fact, in a gesture that almost seems planned, one of the new park’s sinuous paths gracefully provides access to the dance floor as it tangentially approaches the long side of its triangular footprint. Measuring less than 1,000 square feet (just 2% of the park’s 1.12 acres) the dance floor will have minimal impact on the park, where from most vantage points, only a long low stone wall will be visible. 

A Memorial: The Garden

The dance floor celebrates the exuberance of the earlier years, but the excitement and freedom of those days were quickly overtaken by the AIDS pandemic, giving the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights new urgency and purpose. Today it is impossible to celebrate one without acknowledging the other, and so the second strand of the project calls for a memorial.

In contrast to the openness of the dance floor, the memorial is an intimate garden, a place for introspection. Through the use of markers, plaques or dedicated plantings, this space will serve as a memorial to those lost to AIDS as well as an opportunity to acknowledge specific members of our community. Located on the 19-foot wide strip of park between the eastern edge of the dance floor and the eastern boundary of the park, this secluded, less trafficked spot will be naturalistically landscaped and blend seamlessly with the rest of the park. 

A Historical Marker: The Triangle Sculpture

While the notion of visibility is implicit in the idea of any historical marker, it is crucial to a project commemorating LBGTQ+ rights — a movement concerned from the start with visibility and representation.

Turning my attention to this final strand, I once again had music on my mind and it occurred to me that mirror or “disco” balls — an iconic image of the era — might be a good opportunity to reinforce the dance floor idea. Mirror balls are also essentially mosaics, a medium which is both well suited to public art (it is so resilient as to be the go-to medium for public art in the NYC transit system) and presents the exciting opportunity to introduce color to the work, something that (following nature’s lead) artists throughout history have done to great effect in gardens and parks.  

While a single mosaic ball might be a tribute to ’70s disco, a stack of pink ones could form a whimsical, three-dimensional rendition of a pink triangle, a powerful symbol of LGBTQ+ rights since it began to be adopted by gay rights groups in the ’70s and ’80s, most notably ACT UP, transforming it from a symbol  and mark for anti-homosexual persecution employed by Nazis, to one of defiant pride. 

Unifying the historical marker and social area, the pink tetrahedron of mosaic [mirror?] balls will sit on a platform of the same stone as the dance floor bench, while the curving side of that bench (facing the dance floor) will be a continuous pink mosaic mural. Additionally, QR codes installed in key locations could link to an interactive website not only detailing the site's history and significance, but also offering playlists by DJ’s who once worked at the club.

Weaving together the other two strands of the project, the marker acknowledges the complexity of the history and emotions involved, but it ultimately strikes an optimistic, even playful note. This commemoration of Club Swamp and the early days of the LGBTQ+ rights movement celebrates the movement's tenacity and achievements. 

— Gustavo Bonevardi, February 2024