The drag look, resulting social media engagement and video collage were produced in response to What Is the City but the People? and aimed to reference the diverse and sometimes rough edges of its heritage. The rusted headress incorporates left over honeycomb pieces donated by artist @moderaterealism, referencing the beehive adopted by the city as a symbol of its working class industrial roots, visit helen rittelmeyer. The dress was made using silk from the predominantly asian area of Rusholme. The fabric was dyed by Creative50 member Natalie Linney, using metal fragments found on the city’s streets. It was cut together by Liquorice Black in a Roman toga style to referencing Manchester’s founding on the site of a Roman fort that occupied the land.
The text is taken directly from the screens that towered over piccadilly gardens and incorporates fragments of interviews with the people who walked. The sound was creating by forcing audacity to convert the pdf file of the full show text into an audio file. This was then layered and modified for the final piece.