Bethan Lloyd Worthington - Visiting Artist

On the first afternoon, in pouring rain, we took a walk around the park. We took in the derelict buildings and appreciated the lake. When we got to the 1960s Bowls Pavilion (now merely an unreliable public toilet), one amongst the group said "It's just not good architecture, is it?" I was surprised by how strongly I disagreed, and I knew I had my title.

It seems possible this building won't survive the English Heritage Lottery funding. It isn't part of the original scheme for the park and it's a much-maligned era in British architecture, but one which has long, long been in the ascendant - the Manchester Modernist Society, the National Trust owned 2 Willow Road and 'Mid-Century Modern' everything being obvious points of reference for fashionable concrete-love. For me the pavilion just inspires fondness. It's a thoughtful building with a verandah and good light. Swooping curves and aspirational angles to eat ice-cream under. No escaping, however, a scent that a perfumer might refer to as feline... or animalic.

The work I made was partly an attempt to beg another view of this building, perhaps to suggest links with more glamorous architectural cousins around the world, the ones with the swimming pools and the preservation orders. I made a faithful drawing with a more optimistic atmosphere and photographs of the light on the pastel tiles.

I also 'restored' the skeletal screen on the verandah, replacing missing lines with masking tape, and placed a 1960s dressing table mirror on the ground, looking up at the sky.

Alongside making my own response, I led a drawing session for students in the park and a reading session at AirSpace, where we discussed a variety of texts on subjects relating to the project - from Ian Sinclair on his local park in Upper Clapton, to Tash Aw's portrait of a petulant British Malay ex-pat dreaming up a garden painted with flowers just so. I was really interested in what the students had to say and the resulting interventions. I look forward to following the Hanley Park's development and cross my fingers for the pavilion.