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Market Crossings

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Market Crossings

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Australian cultural identity is evolving & diversifying at breakneck pace and nowhere is this more evident than the Preston Market. For 40 years it has been one of the first ports of call for new arrivals, cutting across socio- economic divisions and now it is faced with a development revamp. MARKET CROSSINGS is a searing & colourful look into the gentrification of Melbourne’s most vibrant cultural melting pot.

“Hundreds of thousands of lines of movement and history, criss-crossing in every which direction, with the Preston Market sitting square in the middle.” – Victoria Stead

MARKET CROSSINGS is a collection of stories & testimonies by the traders & patrons of the Preston Market alongside researched insights into the social functions of live markets. This publication was developed over two years during the Market Value Project, an innovative cultural development project which enabled participants to express shared values.

The documentary film included in the book captures character portraits of small business owners & employees, the figurative economic canaries in the coal mine. During the global financial crisis as the traders struggle to keep their roller doors open, the developers are forced to temporarily suspend their multi million dollar plans.

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In November 2009, a multimedia exhibition was presented to an audience as a 30-minute tour through the labyrinth of closing shops. Animated tales of family histories play on monitors propped up on counters, where salami should be. Each turned corner reveals a moving image embedded on its steel walls. Peeking behind the façade of the markets, the audience witnesses stories of conflict, family, trade and incidental humour.

Providing opportunities to linger is identified as one of the essential attributes that enables a Market to function as a site of social interaction. This is then a chance to loiter and linger with purpose, to take time to soak up the distinctive culture that exists in a market place and to proudly showcase the resulting artwork.

Through filmed stories, projections, and digital snippets we explored ways in which collective storytelling became a community-forming activity.

The Preston Market in Melbourne has been standing for over 40 years in the centre of a growing multicultural precinct. When developers earmark the area for serious demolition and re-development, the traders are faced with an ongoing uncertainty to their own futures.  Engaged in a multi-faceted project, an arts company focuses on the people of the market to explore issues of history, displacement and personal realisation.

director, Stuart Liddell
executive producer, Brian Cohen
TRAX 2010

]]> http://trax.org/market-crossings-documentary/feed/ 0 http://trax.org/playtag/ http://trax.org/playtag/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:59:22 +0000 TRAX http://trax.org/?p=2165

The market’s life story is being written all the time; even the smallest gesture adds to it. Play Tag! is an exploration of the market through a narrative game of tag. This film is based around the exquisite corpse exercise whereby each line of a story is collectively assembled.

director, Tintin Wulia
executive producer, Tara Prowse
camera, Stuart Liddell & Tintin Wulia

Singing Santa, magical girls and a car ride on an easy Saturday morning: a glimpse of the amazing landscapes that shapes Julie’s world.

director, Tintin Wulia
executive producer, Tara Prowse

camera, Stu Liddell & Tintin Wulia
starring, Julie Le

All for just one apple…

director, Brian Cohen
executive producer, Tara Prowse

camera, Brian Cohen & Naz Allen
cast, Lisa Piccione, Alice Chaw, Jai Singh & Jamie

Charandev Singh is a Darebin local and Preston Market fan.

director, Brian Cohen
executive producer, Tara Prowse
camera, Brian Cohen, Tintin Wulia & Stuart Liddell

Creative Friction, Disrupting The Boundaries Of ‘Art’ And ‘Community Art’ by Victoria Stead

http://documents.scribd.com.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/hhl37jbngu2em8.pdf?t=1266374404

The intention of this Cultural Impact Statement is to provide an overview of the existing cultural and social environment of the Preston Market, and explore the potential impacts of the Market Value project upon it. In doing so, this document will provide a foundational basis for the creative development of the project, and the evolving engagement of the artists with the community in and around the Preston Market.

http://documents.scribd.com.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/16ehtb77c9grsv9zwlbg.pdf?t=1249488259

Nestled comfortably between fish & fruit, TRAX has been in residency in the Preston Markets for nearly two years producing new media projects.

Meggs, one of Melbourne’s finest street>gallery artists will be working with a small group of young artists on a mural project.

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mural

*Featured in these photos are Fabian, Esther, Lachlan, Lashna + Meggs

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Meggs Bio:

Spreading his street work as far as Paris, London and Tokyo, Meggs has also contributed to numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His work has more notably been sold through ‘Artcurial Auctioneers’ (Paris) and is included in the ‘National Gallery of Australia’s’ (Canberra) permanent ‘works on paper’ collection. Continually evolving his painting style with a continued passion for graffiti and character painting, pop-art and abstract expressionism has led to Meggs being well recognised as one of Australia’s pioneering street to gallery artists.
http://houseofmeggs.com/

In November 2008 we staged The Strand, a play about the dynamics of a community struggling with gentrification & identity.

IMAGINING THE MARKET AS A CHARACTER

The skeleton of the Market is a ’70s space frame. Wind passes through the open passageways and its tent-like ceiling breathes. With the many minds that pass through each day it can be perceived to have a kind of awareness, of existing as a character perhaps because of the attributes it is imbued with by its residents, but it has withered and aged, and if it were a self-determining creature it could have clearly advised its key stakeholders as to its destiny.

In an attempt to keep it simple, I like to say that The Strand is a snapshot of the Market as told through a love story. But Market culture is anything but simple: this story was triangulated between a woman named Leanne, who represents management, the main character Cal, representing local community and a young fruitier named Demi, who represents the traders’ future. Each character is a dominant aspect of Market culture. Cal is a cleaner, a man made invisible by circumstance. The Market are where he feels safe and unchallenged. Leanne, an architectural designer, discovers something grounded and soulful within him, which she’d misplaced long ago. Throughout the play we witness Cal become aware of himself by rediscovering value through Leanne’s caring.

In creating a piece of theatre with source material gathered from the Preston Market The Strand set out to create a parallel narrative to the one playing out in late 2008 — a narrative of redevelopment and uncertainty. The characters were essentially archetypes of people we often meet—The Patriarch, the Lost Soul who finds solace here, the Son of Father & Son, the Woman Who Brings Change, the Ghost who is both invisible and omnipresent in the Markets. All these characters share a vital sense of belonging and connection to the life of the Market. They revolve around each other, holding clues to the other’s daily narratives. For them, it is simply more than a place to buy broccoli at $2 a head, it is their social lifeline to the world, and transactions involving relationships and experience play out in pallet-loads every moment.