README: Title The Start of All Imaginings & At Home with the Market Traders (2023) Patricia Mackinnon-Day Patricia.Mackinnon-Day@ljmu.ac.uk Abstract The Start of All Imaginings (2023) Market Trader Stories Screen one: 50 mins The film brings together the stories of nine market traders and behind-the-scenes footage, exploring the realities of everyday markets. They express their excitement and anticipation about moving to a new market space, after decades of waiting for the new development to happen. The arrival into the new space is accompanied by slow-motion footage soundtracked by Panis Angelicus, sung by Grace Crook, a chorister from Chester Cathedral, evoking a sense that the traders have completed a challenging journey and are now elated as the great day finally arrives. At Home with the Market Traders (2023) Screen two: 32 mins This film offers a commentary on the narratives of market users, as they are filmed in their home environments. The exchanges begin conversations about the importance of markets, how they contribute to a sense of place and what this means in the context of regeneration. The commentary is punctuated with Panis Angelicus, but this time the words are replaced with traders' comments. Words and music arranged by Grace Crook and Tim McLachan, sung by the Chester Cathedral Choristers and the Saturday morning singing club. Contributors: The project involved collaboration with market traders, Chester Cathedral Saturday Singing Club, and the market users Market Traders: * Geoff Hughes, Butcher * Lisa Dean, Purely Pots (florist) * Shaf Sharif, Siaf Sharif & Samsun Nahar Sharif, Guroma * Stephanie Lobo, Pastry Pedlar * Martin Taylor, Oyster Bar * Remon Moriss and Lara Gergis, MRKT café * Stuart Fenney, Nice Bites * Steve Cartridge, Fishmonger * Sirikorn and Stephen Jones, Thai by Thai Chester Cathedral Saturday Singing Club Soundtrack arranged by Choir master Tim Mclachlan and Chorister Grace Crook Context & Significance The European Cultural Centre selected the films to feature in the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennial. They were also shown in the Chester Contemporary in 2023. * Public research presentations * Immersive film installations * Community engagement through music and storytelling * A focus on the importance of markets embracing social inclusion and care for others Project Notes: Stories visible and hidden by Sam Ainsley Market Trader Stories publication (2024) Patricia MacKinnon-Day I have been aware of Patricia Mackinnon-Day's work since 1997, when she exhibited at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow, where she interrogated her history and experiences. She has since immersed herself in a wide range of public contexts, including psychiatric hospitals, shipyards, farming, social housing, and many more, in both urban and rural settings. She has understood the value and importance of collaboration, and her work has included, but is not limited to, collaborations with architects, scientists, engineers, psychiatrists, urban designers, musicians, filmmakers, writers, and poets. This issue of collaboration is central to her practice and has led to some meaningful relationships with experts and practitioners in other fields. Significantly, her subjects are often outside the mainstream or on the periphery, are very often marginalised communities and in the past have included projects with shepherdesses, shipyard workers, female farmers and asylum seekers, to name but a few. Mackinnon-Day is first and foremost a storyteller whose creative and memorable installations, which emerge from non-art settings, are evidence of a distinctive voice in contemporary art practice. Her lengthy engagement with her subject matter has produced memorable and engaging artworks which stay in the mind long after the initial act of viewing. "Connecting with people offers an exchange of experience that make a work which ultimately adds to the story of that place" and "Her extensive research has brought her into contact with the physical and social reality of a traditional, close knit community bound by a common history and shared experiences, intertwined families, a particular material culture and a rich and self-renewing trove of stories" (Rhona Warwick 2006). Mackinnon-Day's subject matter and interests are wide-ranging, and part of the success of her many projects is due to her meticulous approach, evidencing a deep respect for her subject matter. She excels at bringing an audience's attention to people and places. Those that are sometimes hidden or overlooked; she brings the lived experiences of others into visibility. Her projects resonate with stories about a people and a place at a particular time in history, part of a longer historical narrative that can so easily be lost. Places that we inhabit can assume a value that is both immeasurable and vital. These can serve as a record for the future and contribute to an archive of living histories. Another legacy of her work, apart from its importance to the field of art in public places, lies within the realm of heritage conservation, where her work has influenced the conservation of otherwise disregarded and abandoned sites. "My starting point is outside the studio and conventional gallery system, my interests extend further than the realities of industry, commerce and government into the intuitive, emotional and the personal" Tracing the Landscape, 8th March 2018 BBC International Day, Woman's Hour Mackinnon-Day utilises all her senses, particularly sight and hearing, in addition to her formidable intellectual powers, in her artwork. Her Phd, "Intimacy and Immensity," is a model of lucidity, rigour, and a brilliant example of "new knowledge" that characterises the very best of practice-based PhDs. In this, she uses the term "auto-ethnographic" to describe an approach to enquiry that informs her creative processes, meaning using personal experience to examine life experiences that confront pressures both inside and outside their particular standpoints or positions within society. Her work has more in common with artists as varied as Cornelia Parker, Anya Gallaccio and Tacita Dean than those who work solely within the gallery system. The Artists Placement group (John Latham and Barbara Stevini) used the mantra "The context is half the work", and this is central to Mackinnon-Day's understanding of place-specific and place-related public artworks. "My practice has its roots in the A.P.G's focus on the 'open brief', the recognition that an artwork changes fundamentally depending not only on how it is made but also where and with whom it is made. It is not restricted to the space but can extend its relevance and significance far beyond its immediate site. Too often, attention can be focused on the former - the site-, rather than on the latter-the art." Keywords market, place, stories, local histories, isolation, sound art, environmental art, community engagement, interdisciplinary research Date of Event / Output May – September 2023 Location Chester, Venice Format of Outputs * Digital film and sound recordings * Photographic documentation of physical installations and event * Outreach materials Additional Information Language English Usage Rights / Licensing Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International      Funding Information [Arts Council Wales and Ruthin Craft Centre] Related URLs https://www.juliet-artmagazine.com/en/urban-landscape-community-and-ancestral-architecture-reflections-on-the-group-show-time-space-existence-in-venice/ https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/2023archbiennial https://wlgt.co.uk/best-of/chester-contemporary-a-major-new-visual-arts-event-22-september-1-december-2023/ https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/news/chester-contemporary-a-new-visual-arts-event-september-to-december-2023 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnyVkqTZhS4Yl4KkobQDBiw/videos https://newchester.market/from-chester-market-to-venice-market-trader-films-selected-for-prestigious-biennale-exhibition/ https://cvannw.co.uk/from-chester-market-to-venice-biennale Contact For further information, contact: Patricia.Mackinnon-Day@ljmu.ac.uk