Our project ‘Red’ is a series of 3, one month residencies in 2 market towns and one city. We have been commissioned by ‘In Certain Places’ to work in the St John’s Centre, Preston, for the first month. This blog will follow our progress over the 3 months, where we will be encouraging local shoppers and retailers alike to collaborate with us in a series of synchronised performances in red.
Got drenched on the way from the car to our cosy stall (Chorley today) in torrential rain. A big, red umbrella caught our eye immediately, the red being a pattern of bright red strawberries. We swiftly purchased 2 which came to £9, bargain. Jo of Jo’s diner nipped out to the shop to get some porridge for us which has become ritual. I take mine with sugar and Teresa (mum) takes hers with honey (always the healthier one). After breakfast we began our usual performance of trying to make eye contact with passers-by, especially those who are wearing red. As always we’ve had lots of interest and people are thrilled to hear about our project and those who are unable to participate wish us the best of luck with our venture. It really does give us a buzz when their reactions are overflowing with enthusiasm, and although the ‘red day out’ will be the exhibited work, it is very obvious that our art isn’t only about a final performance but an ongoing performance which reaches people on every level and in every walk of life. One chap happened by us and began laughing, ‘lost your horse?’, he asked. We haven’t heard that one before and he didn’t hang around long enough for us to ask what he meant. We’ve had 3 more recruits today though. One is a young man named Ross whose mission is to break into the fashion world in an unconventional approach. He is going to create his own outfit and add a bit of glamour to the day. As time creeps towards the finale we now have almost 40 people so only another 10 to go. Bury on Friday as we’re meeting Rebecca to sort out her outfit. We have a lovely dress lined up for her so fingers crossed it fits and she likes it.
Its been quite a while since we last posted anything but we have been very busy collecting our two groups of people in Bury and Chorley who will be joining us on our ‘red day out’. Our aim was to get 50 people, 25 from each town, and so far we have 35 definites, most of whom are from chorley and a small group from Bury.
We were in chilly Chorley today and we have recruited another 5 people, Lisa and Sharon, Jean, Jade and Enid. We sent Lisa and Sharon away each with a red outfit from our collection to try on at home, who are then going to give us a call to confirm they fit and feel confident and comfortable with their choice. Jean is calling back on Tuesday with what odd things she has in red so we can match up what shes lacking with what we have available from our collection. Jade and Enid both have lots of red clothes and accessories and so need no help from us in creating their outfits for the day. In fact Enid, an elderly lady, was positively thrilled at the prospect of dressing in red and promises a real treat of an outfit for us. Very funny lady indeed, good on her! Hopefully we will hit our target of 50 people and if anyone is interested in taking part, feel free to contact either of us by email.
Although its been a while since we last updated our blog, it only feels like a day or two. Despite this we have been very busy working our socks off in Bury trying to get volunteers to participate in our ‘red day out’. For practical reasons its been a huge challenge getting people on board, the main reason and obstacle being we haven’t got our collection of red clothes on site and though people are eager to take part, the difficulty is getting them to come back to Bury on another day to try on suitable clothes which we bring from Chorley. We have a small group of definites on board. We also visited the college on Friday and had a very encouraging meeting with Peter Hague who works for the Arts department. He took us on a guided tour of the the different arts courses including the foundation class, photography and performing arts where he introduced us to the tutors, filling them in on what we’re doing and how it would be great to involve them somehow. We are arranging to go back and give a presentation to the students and offer them the opportunity to join in.
On Saturday we began working on Chorley market on a large stall (and a kiosk round the corner which we’re going to use as a changing room) which didn’t take us very long to give a clean up and to display all our red props. We got a very warm welcome from all the market traders, one in particular named Peter who owns a stall with his wife Bev. They sell jewellry and wedding hats and similar accessories. After walking round the market and introducing ourselves to the traders he wandered across with two beautiful red bracelets, one for each of us, which he described as his donation to the project. What a lovely gesture! We had a great day and a very encouraging response from everyone who happened by us that day.
Dominique blogging today as its ‘my turn’! We started off the day with bacon barmcakes and cappuccino’s at Katsouris whilst admiring all the cakes on display and wondering if its possible all my red clothes might not fit me at the end of the month. After gazing longingly at amaretto biscuits for 10 minutes we headed to our stall to set up for the day. Once organised we began smiling and attempting to make eye contact with the people walking past. Its almost like sitting in the centre of a merry-go-round and when its busy with shoppers it sometimes make you feel sick! We had lots of interest and two ladies are keen on getting involved which is great and means that on our first 3 days on the market we have enlisted 15 people to participate; after 4 weeks who knows how many people we’ll have! We had the pleasure of meeting Bob, Bury’s town crier and we exchanged conversation about our project and what its like to be a town crier. What a lovely man along with everybody else we’ve met so far on the market, all very friendly people. He was very happy to have his photograph take outside of Carmina Bags before strolling off to the fish and meat market to shout his announcements. After lunch we spent the remainder of the day handing out more leaflets and creating more interest by just sitting there dressed in red. Most people comment on my red hat which is commonly agreed to be magnificent. Some people even want to try it on! Today, Trisha from Manchester modelled it superbly and it seemed an incentive to participate. On Tuesday we will be setting out to find more wonderful and unique hats which we can paint or dye red and add to our collection.
Teresa here after another horrendous day, weather wise that is. We left home, Dominique without her purse (did she do that on purpose?) and the photographs; me without the tablecloth and with no money whatsoever, so at that point we were penniless but I did remember to bring the pencil sharpener – so not all was doom and gloom! When we finally arrived, after taking our lives into our hands and aquaplaning to Bury along the motorway, our gazebo was leaking and the table and A board were soaking wet and far from encouraging. It all seemed a bit bleak to say the least but Craig came to our rescue and moved our table inside the market to a nice warm and cosy spot next to the cooked meat and haberdashery stalls. I must say it was a far nicer atmosphere compared to the outside stall we occupied on Wednesday. The stallholders here were far more friendly and even entered into the spirit of our project by wearing Dom’s ‘magnificent’ hat (Jean, the owner of Bury Health Food Store) and a red beret (Pete from Bury Bacon Co Ltd), red, ha ha, which we took along in case the temperature dropped to freezing, which seemed distinctly possible when we embarked on our journey from Chorley. All in all it proved a much better day than we initially anticipated and we now have a grand total of 12 people from Bury wishing to participate in the ‘Red Day Out’ to take place on Saturday, 3 October. ps I do swear I wasn’t sloshed today just dazzled by the flash!
