At last night's Chat Room at Northwest Film Forum on the subjects of value and labor, I was prepared to dislike the artist E.T. Russian. It was not the artist's fault. There were many technical difficulties, causing great delays, and these delays were filled in with games such as the Wheel of Fortune for an artist's life ("get invited to a prestigious residency and told you have to pay all expenses," etc), and when it is 9 pm on a school night and I have come to hear smart people discuss interesting things, I do not want games.

E.T. Russian was the subject of one of the games, which was that everybody had a paddle under their chairs and had to raise their paddle to guess how much E.T. Russian had been awarded in grants to work on their new project, Casting Shadows, which Russian first previewed for us. The auction I did not care for or about.

The work, I loved.

Perhaps you already know of the glory of E.T. Russian, as they are comics hero. But if you do not, you should watch the video above, which is an homage to an homage-worthy thing: Seattle's outdoor saltwater public pool at the edge of Puget Sound.

At no point does the video say, "I'm about disability rights!" In this video, there is no "normal" body, there are just bodies, and they swim and dream and talk about it after. It's "at once deeply thoughtful and bold, political and human," as Leaving Evidence author Mia Mingus says. Stay tuned to E.T. Russian.