Portwell bench, Faringdon

Image: © Vieve Forward Taken: 17 Apr 2015

'In 2014 the stone seat near the Portwell Pump in Faringdon's Market Square was cleaned, repaired and improved with money from Bloor Homes Folly Park View development. 'The “Dali Diver” celebrates an era when the glitterati of the art, music and literature worlds would descend on Faringdon in their droves. Diana Churchill ran around the grounds of Faringdon House naked. Salvador Dali even had his own bedroom there – painted deep red. On one of Dali’s extended visits, Berners entered into the spirit of Dali’s endeavours by making the arrangements to hire a deep sea diver’s suit that Dali was going to wear at the opening of the first exhibition of Surrealist Art in London. On being asked to what depth Dali wished to descend, Lord Berners replied that Dali was going to descend to the subconscious, after which he would immediately come up again. With equal seriousness the voice on the telephone replied that in this case they would replace the helmet with a special one. 'Dali also tried out the suit in Faringdon, walking across the square right by the site of the Portwell seat. The opening itself when Dali attempted to give a lecture while slowly suffocating encased in the diving suit has gone down in the infamous annals of art history. 'The Diver is also particularly appropriate in a region famed for its fossil sponges that thrived when Faringdon was deep beneath the sea. Faringdon of course also has its own fully registered lighthouse. 'Just as Dali wore the diver’s suit to startle people from their complacency, Berners was also fond of wearing masks to give people a shock, so the weight hanging below the diver’s shoulder plates is fashioned into a laughing mask. The sad mask on the diver’s back represents the duality of Berners’ bouts of depression contrasting with his eccentric humour.' Faringdon Community Website http://www.faringdon.org/portwell-bench.html

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