My record of everyone at the grand ceremonial opening, for the archive. Another photo taken later in the night when the Cosy had taken up residence.
The pillar box is in the city centre, it was Saturday night. Brighton gets packed with leery clubbers. When the Cosy was on the postbox, individuals, couples and groups were running across the road to hug it. Useful that there was a cash point next to it. There was a lot of rubbing, stroking and laughing. There was a real warmth. Post box as pet. Enjoying the middle of the night textures.
Lots of mobile phone photography. Lots of posing. Some people were trying the cosy on, with hilarious results. Then their mates insisting they put it back, “No! Properly!” A group of young women turned out to be a knitting circle on a day trip from London. The whole Cosy thing was proof that Brighton was an ‘excellent’ place, “We don’t have anything like this in London, London’s dead.” Positive conversations, no agression. No-one said that it was stupid or absurd. It was accepted. One couple even managed to buy a post card, and a stamp, then photograph themselves posting it. This at one thirty am. A very heartening experience all round. Will they wake up the next morning puzzling whether they had seen it and why it was there?
There were several offers of help should I need to knit another, including a faroese version. One change of plan, I didn’t leave the cosy in place as I had intended. It needs to be made into a one piece object, not three pieces as it is now. The top comes off too easily, the main sleeve is only Velcro’d together. My intention is to set it up again in the next few weeks, on a night when it isn’t raining (another design flaw), sew it together and then leave it. Cast it adrift.
More photographs: Flickr: davidjonathanswain
