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-CROWD: -Five, four, three, two, one... | 0:00:02 | 0:00:05 | |
CHEERING | 0:00:05 | 0:00:09 | |
The start of 2017 was a bit special for my home city | 0:00:09 | 0:00:13 | |
because this year, Hull was crowned the UK's City of Culture. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
The opening ceremony saw a dazzling light show | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
with Hull's biggest moments from its recent past | 0:00:22 | 0:00:26 | |
beamed onto buildings across the city... | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
..kicking off a year-long arts festival | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
boasting hundreds of events. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
As a comedian, I used to have a joke that went - | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
"You've got London that hosted the Olympics | 0:00:41 | 0:00:43 | |
"and Hull that hosted Zumba classes you can smoke in." | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
But, to be honest, I wouldn't say it now. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
You see, Hull's always been the butt of the joke - | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
I've gathered most of my material here - | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
but it's all changed now with the City of Culture. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
We're cosmopolitan, don't you know? | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
Most of us used to think it was really fish and chips and rugby, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:03 | |
and then realising there's great history, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:05 | |
there's great culture. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
So many great things have come from Hull | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
and I think it has a lot to do with the fact | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
that we are single-minded and stubborn and outspoken, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:15 | |
and we won't be put down. | 0:01:15 | 0:01:17 | |
If you come here, you end up making art. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
You end up doing something creative. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
But Hull has got more than most and it's time that was celebrated, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:27 | |
not just by the people of Hull but by everybody. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
It's finally our chance to show off, | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
so we've hoovered around, put on our best frock, | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
and we're ready to host the best arts festival ever. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
We've got a saying up here, "It's never dull in Hull." | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
Welcome to Hull! | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
Just to attune your ears to the accent | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
cos it is quite strong. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
Erm...if you can repeat after me... | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
Mama mia. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
-ALL: -Mama mia. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
And that's telling your mother you've arrived. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:08 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
'I've long ribbed my home city for its accent and quirks, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
'but in all seriousness, I'm so proud of my roots.' | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
So when this happened... | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
The UK City of Culture 2017 is Hull. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
CHEERING | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
..well, I was over the moon. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:27 | |
It felt like it was our time. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:29 | |
We deserved it and, really, we needed this title. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
If you don't know us, our city, officially Kingston upon Hull, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
sits halfway up England on the East Yorkshire coast. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
Here we are. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
For centuries, we've been a thriving port and a gateway to Europe, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
but our city's weathered some tough times. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
With us being an east coast port town, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
in the Second World War, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:01 | |
we were a sitting duck for German bombers. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
It was the most bombed city outside of London. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
More than 90% of our housing was damaged in the Blitz, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:14 | |
but gritty resilience is what we do best here. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
After all, this is a city built on the tough industry of fishing. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:23 | |
Once it was all trawler fleets here, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
but, in the 1970s, new fishing restrictions | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
in the North Atlantic wreaked havoc. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
In this city, if you weren't a trawlerman, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
then chances are you were a docker, | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
or a fish house worker or a shipbuilder. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
So when the industry collapsed, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
literally thousands of people lost their jobs almost overnight. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:46 | |
The '70s and '80s were a tough time for Hull. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
But even during its darkest days, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
our city has always been an inspiration, | 0:03:53 | 0:03:55 | |
a haven, even, for artists. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
There's something about being by the sea, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
being on the edge of things, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
that gives the city and its creativity | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
a really unique spirit. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
My mum's a playwright, so I grew up with theatre in Hull, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
but the art scene has been hidden away, to a certain extent, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
without much funding or recognition. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
But finally that's changing. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
We have a new district | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
with galleries and music studios opening up | 0:04:27 | 0:04:29 | |
in disused warehouses in the old docks area. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:32 | |
Hipster-style, shall we say? | 0:04:32 | 0:04:34 | |
But not all our art galleries are so new. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
Ferens has been our much-loved city art gallery since the 1920s | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
thanks to this dude - Thomas Robinson Ferens. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
Ferens got rich managing a local factory | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
that made cleaning products and disinfectant | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
and, with the money, he paid for this building to be built | 0:04:58 | 0:05:01 | |
and filled it with lots of lovely artwork. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
So, thank you, Mr Ferens, and your Dettol. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
I don't mean to boast, | 0:05:09 | 0:05:10 | |
but we've got our fair share of big names here. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
Check these out. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
I like this one, although I wouldn't want to meet him on a dark night. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:32 | |
And this sculpture has been a favourite of mine since childhood. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
For the City of Culture, Ferens has undergone a £4.5m revamp. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:51 | |
Throughout the year, we've got special loans on display, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
like these Francis Bacon paintings of a so-called screaming pope. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
And later this year, | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
the Turner Prize will be hosted here. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
But right now, these galleries are showing off work by local artists | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
in what's called the Open Exhibition, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
now in its 50th year. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
My granny and grandad were artists | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
and they used to enter the Ferens Open Exhibition when I was a kid, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:23 | |
so it was a really exciting time. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
This year, there was nearly 2,000 entries from the region. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
It just goes to show how much creative talent there is here. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
I've found my favourite. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
There's something about this, it makes me feel real comforting. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
I think she'd make really good roast potatoes. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
'One of the judges this year was actress Maureen Lipman, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
'another daughter of Hull.' | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
Maureen, you were asked to judge | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
the Hull Ferens Art Gallery Open Exhibition. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
How did you find that? | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
Well, it was fun. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:17 | |
It was a... | 0:07:17 | 0:07:18 | |
A busy day. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
There was thousands, so it was a long day, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
but we all agreed about everything, which was a bit disappointing. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
What's extraordinary is the materials that people use, that's... | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
The things they can do with wood, | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
the things they can do with ceramics, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
the things they can do with etching and egg tempera, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
-and stuff that you only read about. -Hmm. -Erm... | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
It's the variety and the fact that people you know | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
have, sort of, enriched their lives by just...painting, drawing, | 0:07:46 | 0:07:52 | |
just looking in a different way. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
It was a lovely competition | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
and I know the Ferens Art Gallery as well. | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
I had taken my gentleman friend | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
to see the portrait of me by Humphrey Ocean, | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
which last was seen in the canteen, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
curling up, with the smell of egg on it, but... | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
Then, when I went, it had been down in the vaults. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
But now I'm told that it's out, so I'm thrilled about that. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
And, of course, I had quite a history | 0:08:16 | 0:08:18 | |
with the Ferens Art Gallery | 0:08:18 | 0:08:19 | |
because my father's shop, | 0:08:19 | 0:08:21 | |
Maurice Lipman, gentleman's outfitters, | 0:08:21 | 0:08:23 | |
was two doors from it, separated only by a fish shop. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:28 | |
So often I would go into the Ferens and I would always go to see, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
not the Frans Hals, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:32 | |
which is the famous Portrait of a Young Woman - | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
she's fantastic, and their greatest painting, probably - | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
I would go to see | 0:08:39 | 0:08:40 | |
Meredith Frampton's lady playing cards, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
which was very Art Deco and very stark...very 1930s. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
And I have it in my hall, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
as I have a picture of the front of city square there, yeah. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
Cos you can take the girl out of Hull, | 0:08:52 | 0:08:54 | |
but you cannot necessarily take Hull out of the girl. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
No, that's very true. | 0:08:57 | 0:08:58 | |
Or get rid of the accent, in my case. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
-Well, no, you are a dead loss in that department, love. -I know! | 0:09:00 | 0:09:05 | |
When I went to drama school, and I got into doing improvisations | 0:09:05 | 0:09:09 | |
-and stuff... -Hmm. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
..and I went back to the Hull New Theatre | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
and I saw something, and there's a long, long bar. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
And I said to the manager, "This is an incredible space", I said. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
"Have you ever thought of doing improvisations here?" | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
And he said, "Aye, we are improving it gradually." | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:09:25 | 0:09:28 | |
Maureen isn't the only theatrical talent to hail from Hull. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:35 | |
The playwright Richard Bean grew up just down the road | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
and has gone on to pen smash hits like One Man, Two Guvnors, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
a hilarious adaptation of an Italian farce | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
about the antics of an out-of-work musician. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
Does he prefer eating or...making love? | 0:09:52 | 0:09:57 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
It's a tough one that, isn't it?! I don't know! | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
And now, for the City of Culture, | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
Richard has a new treat in store for us. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
The Hypocrite will play at Hull Truck | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
until the end of March, before transferring to the RSC, | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
and rehearsals have been underway in a local hall, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
with Caroline Quentin among the cast. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
It's a farce about how Hull started the English Civil War | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
and, no, that's not a joke - that's a fact. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
-IN A FRENCH ACCENT: -Then the English Civil war starts now. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
Who will make the first advance?! | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
The plot revolves around a real historical figure, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
Sir John Hotham, a Governor of Hull - | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
here played by Mark Addy. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
In 1642, Sir John closed the city gates on King Charles I | 0:10:47 | 0:10:52 | |
in an act of defiance that kicked off the English Civil War. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
SHOUTING | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
That sort of worked. Could we do that again, please? | 0:11:03 | 0:11:07 | |
I'm off to meet Richard in a local pub. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
This building used to be the Governor's house | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
and so it was within these very walls that Sir John | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
hatched his plot against the King. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
I mean, growing up in Hull, I knew that story and I enjoyed that story | 0:11:18 | 0:11:23 | |
because it's kind of, "Oh, yeah, we're kind of dissident, | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
"we're rebellious." | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
But when I started reading it, | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
-it started reading like a French farce... -Right. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:32 | |
..because...Sir John Hotham takes the town for Parliament | 0:11:32 | 0:11:38 | |
and...as soon as... | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Pretty much as soon as he's taken the town | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
and refused the King, he starts having regrets. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:46 | |
And the next 14 months or so is him and his son basically scheming | 0:11:46 | 0:11:52 | |
to give Hull and the munitions to the King. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
This is why it's called The Hypocrite. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
That's why it's called The Hypocrite. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
And we follow him through... | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
Eventually he's executed by Parliament, actually, in 1645. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
But he would have been executed by the King, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
if the King had won the English Civil War, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
so that's why he's a, kind of, double traitor | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
and an interesting character to drive...drive a play. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
Sir John Hotham, I'm arresting you for treachery to Parliament. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:20 | |
What is the nature of this treachery? | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
A conspiracy to surrender the town to the papists. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:26 | |
Captain, my dear chap, whatever do you mean? | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
I see it a lot in your work, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
and I've seen it in other Hull writers, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
that...the ability to make an audience laugh | 0:12:36 | 0:12:42 | |
and then instantly make them cry. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
I find...I found, growing up, that there's a dryness, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
and a kind of dourness and a dryness, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
in people who are consistently trying to make you laugh, | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
but their face doesn't show it. | 0:12:58 | 0:12:59 | |
You know, it's...it's a kind of Buster Keaton thing, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:05 | |
going on in Hull. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:06 | |
I think I am indebted to the city for...for that. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
What about you? Cos... | 0:13:10 | 0:13:11 | |
Yeah, no, the same and... | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
I think, you know, the genetic humour, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:17 | |
I'm sure that is very dark. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
That kind of fatalism mixed with... | 0:13:20 | 0:13:21 | |
"Well, there's nowt you can do about it, is there? So, you know..." | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
-No. -Just get on with it, you know? -Yeah, yeah. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:26 | |
When we got awarded Hull City of Culture, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
I think it was the weekend after Hull City were playing. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
We were 3-0 down at home or something daft like that, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
and then Hull City fans started chanting, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
"You're only here for the culture. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:41 | |
"Here for the culture. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
"You're only here for the culture." | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
Erm... Which I think is a great... | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
It kind of sums up Hull humour, you know? | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
"Yeah, we might be losing, but we're going to have a laugh." | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
I love the dryness of the humour in my home city | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
and I think it's something that can be found in the work | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
of our most famous cultural figure - | 0:14:05 | 0:14:08 | |
the poet Phillip Larkin, | 0:14:08 | 0:14:09 | |
who is commemorated with a statue in the station. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
Larkin wasn't actually from Hull but lived in the city for 30 years, | 0:14:16 | 0:14:20 | |
working here at the university library, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
right up until his death in 1935. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
He was head librarian... | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
..and this was his office. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
Larkin often alluded to his adopted city in his poetry. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
In his 1961 poem Here, he describes a place | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
"Where only salesman and relations come | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
"Within a terminate and fishy-smelling | 0:14:47 | 0:14:49 | |
"Pastoral of ships up streets, the slave museum | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
"Tattoo shops, consulates, grim head-scarfed wives..." | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
Charming(!) | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
Larkin certainly had a way with words - | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
and librarians too, by all accounts - | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
but as a city, we owe him a lot. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
He's helped put Hull on the map and secure City of Culture status. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
I wonder what Larkin would have thought of | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
a year-long arts festival. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
I think he probably would have hated it. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
"Everyone's a flipping poet now." | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
Larkin is something of an establishment figure, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
but even when he was alive, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
Hull had a thriving artistic subculture. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
This bohemian aspect of the city is being celebrated | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
in a new contemporary art space, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
the Humber Street Gallery, down by the docks. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
Here, the builders have been in a race against the clock | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
to get the gallery ready for opening night. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
The arts collective Coum Transmissions | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
is the subject of its very first exhibition. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
The group emerged out of the countercultural scene | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
in the late 1960s in the city and went on to shock the arts world. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:05 | |
They were even described as | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
"the wreckers of Western civilisation". | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
Now, that's cool. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
It was Coum's 1976 exhibition at the ICA called Prostitution | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
that earned them that label | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
and a place in the history books. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
At the same time, Coum members were also making history as | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
pioneers of industrial music with their band Throbbing Gristle. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
But it all started in Hull. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
Now, 50 years on, one of the original Coum members, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
Cosey Fanni Tutti, has returned to curate an exhibition | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
celebrating the group's work, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
which draws on her own personal archive. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
That's inside of Prince Street. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
Spydeee's room. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
It was just really joyous cos we were always having such fun. | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
Coum was formed in 1969 | 0:17:00 | 0:17:02 | |
by an artist and musician called Genesis P Orridge | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
and Cosey joined soon after. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
Their early musical work was rather challenging. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
The instruments we used early on were like... | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
bongos, talking drums, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
Jew's harp, mouth organ, | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
any kind of small toy, even, that would make a noise. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
So it was, at the beginning, kind of anti-music, if you like, | 0:17:26 | 0:17:31 | |
or no structure as such. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:32 | |
It was just fun. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
It was quite a cacophony, to be honest. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
It was just a way of freeing people up to express themselves. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
# On-screen red-haired, green-eyed boy... # | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
Coum's work was often the very epitome of bizarre | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
and a lot of it performed out on the local streets, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:54 | |
as this never-seen-before footage from 1972 shows. | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
We'd sort of do interventions, if you like, | 0:17:58 | 0:18:00 | |
with...with the shoppers, as they went about their business, | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
in very, very bright gold, copper, silver, Day-Glo outfits, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:08 | |
so they couldn't miss us, really. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
Bizarre little scenarios, quite surreal, Dada-based. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
It's hard to believe now, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:19 | |
cos so much like that goes on every day in the streets, | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
but they'd never seen anything like it before. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
The children enjoyed it, some didn't, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
so we just..."Well, see you, then." You know? | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
If it's not your cup of tea, then that's fine. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
But, yeah, it was confrontational in terms of... | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
Not us being confrontational, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
but just the situation of us being there, | 0:18:40 | 0:18:42 | |
and it being so unusual and not what... | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
And unexpected, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
in their daily shopping, weekend shopping. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
The group would become infamous in Hull | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
for a piece of conceptual art known as the Wagon Train. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
It was my usual pram for popping to the laundrette, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:59 | |
something as mundane as that, you know, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
and then gradually it got decorated up | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
and became a wagon train with a...like, a hoot...hood on it, | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
which was, like, fluorescent pink polythene, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
and it was sprayed gold | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
and had gold frying pans and all kinds of objects hanging from it. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
The Wagon Train ended up being | 0:19:17 | 0:19:18 | |
an exhibit in the Ferens Art Gallery, | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
which was an ironic statement for us, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:22 | |
because we were so anti-establishment art | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
and art institutions, | 0:19:25 | 0:19:26 | |
but that appealed to us. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
That is what Coum was all about - | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
infiltrating, contradicting, doing the unexpected. | 0:19:30 | 0:19:34 | |
Hull people are very... | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
They have a...an attitude to life which I really like, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:45 | |
cos I'm from Hull, you know. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
And it is confrontational, | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
and it's almost like a self-preservation attitude, | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
you know, and... | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
That confrontational approach to life is really, I think, | 0:19:57 | 0:20:01 | |
what we built our work on. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
When it comes to the locals, I think plenty of people | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
are sceptical about a year-long arts festival | 0:20:08 | 0:20:11 | |
and what difference it will make to the city and their lives. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:16 | |
When I found out that Hull had won the Culture bid | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
to be City of Culture, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:20 | |
I suppose my only real concern was | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
would it be - and I hate to say this - | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
a middle-class arts festival, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
you know, for people who can access the arts anyway, and do so, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:34 | |
or would it be an arts festival for everyone? | 0:20:34 | 0:20:37 | |
This is Thornton Estate, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:49 | |
home to 4,500 people, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
and one of the less affluent areas of Hull. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
For the City of Culture, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:01 | |
preparations are underway in the local community office | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
for a large-scale art installation involving residents | 0:21:04 | 0:21:08 | |
that will see coloured filters applied to their communal lights. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
It was the idea of Italian artist Silvio Palladino, | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
who previously spent a year on the estate | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
as an artist in residence. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
While I was here, I got to know a lot of the residents - | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
I mean, I was one of them. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
But I also got to talk to people living outside the estate. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
And there is a lot of stigma attached to this estate, | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
probably going back to how it was 20, 30 years ago. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
So I wanted to challenge this and I wanted to tell other people, | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
"Come here, see who lives here, see... | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
"Learn about the stories of people who live here." | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
Studying and researching about Hull history | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
and the history about the area, | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
so I came across the international maritime communications system, | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
which is a flag system that ships use to communicate with each other. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
And I found out that a very simple flag, yellow and blue, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
means "I wish to communicate with you". | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
And I guess that was a good kind of starting point. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
Erm... | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
So this working with the lights and with the colours | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
and the title I Wish To Communicate With You | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
means "Come here, let's start a conversation." | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
I feel under the cosh here, you two, you're going so fast. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
This is the production line of our filters | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
that go into the communal lighting, so it's very hi tech - not. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:41 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
Sharon Darley has been a community worker on the estate for ten years. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
We're using all the colours of the rainbow | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
and people get to choose their colours | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
that we install in the lighting outside their flats. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
Over the last few weeks, Sharon and her team have been busy | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
installing the filters to three of the blocks. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
Hiya, there. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:09 | |
-Sorry to disturb, but we're just fitting the filters now. -Yeah. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:12 | |
So if that's all right, it'll only take us a few minutes. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
Yeah, that's fine. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
-And you asked for purple. -Yes, please. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
Purple is what you get. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:20 | |
Ruth Langdon lives here with her family, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
including 11-year-old daughter Rosa. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
Since the lights and starting doing this thing, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
people are talking to each other a little bit more, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
so it's brought a little bit of community. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
It's nice. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
It's not every day that you're the City of Culture | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
and you're going to be asked to be involved in it, | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
so we thought it was a really nice thing. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
We let the children pick what colour they wanted, | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
so it's nice, really. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:49 | |
I'm really proud to be part of it. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
We fitted one of these blocks in 58 minutes the other day, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:58 | |
so we're getting good at it now. | 0:23:58 | 0:23:59 | |
We're getting good at it. | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
It feels absolutely amazing. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
It's one of the best things I've had the privilege of being involved in. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:26 | |
This is just the first. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:28 | |
We will put as many lights out as possible over the next few months | 0:24:28 | 0:24:33 | |
and it just really exciting. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
Erm, I think it looks really nice when I go to school and when | 0:24:39 | 0:24:43 | |
I come back, the colour of it. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:44 | |
This is one of 60 community-led art projects | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
that forms part of the year-long programme | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
run by director of the City of Culture Martin Green. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
I Wish To Communicate With You | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
is the perfect example of what it's all about. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
This is indeed where art brings us together. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:09 | |
We live in uncertain times, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:10 | |
where too many people seek to divide us. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
And in this beautiful project, everything comes together, you know, | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
and I love it. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
It just...it took my breath away. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
A 365-day arts programme is a terror and a joy. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:29 | |
I think the basic thing that I tried to do with the team | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
was make sure that, in every place, somewhere, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:38 | |
the fabric of the city, or the story, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
or the voice of the city | 0:25:40 | 0:25:41 | |
was contained in what we were programming. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
To tell the story of a city, you have to deal with who we were, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
who we are, but importantly, who we wish to be. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
And so you will see, growing through the year, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
much more of a focus forward. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
Having celebrated the stories of the past, | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
what does that actually mean for this city | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
and its inhabitants for the future? | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
And what's going on is a city refinding its pride, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
and proud cities are confident cities | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
and confident cities can do anything they like. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
My final stop is our city square, | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
where a vast new art installation nods to our city's future. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
This is a blade from a wind turbine made in | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
a newly opened factory in Hull. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
75 metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
it's a tribute to local craftsmanship | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
and claimed to be the largest single cast product in the world. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:41 | |
Although the artwork is certainly dividing opinion... | 0:26:43 | 0:26:47 | |
Look at that monstrosity there. | 0:26:47 | 0:26:49 | |
-I know. It's a butter knife. -Built in Hull. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
SHE LAUGHS | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
It makes an impact, 100%. I just hope it don't fall down. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
Well, I'm not sure whether it's art or not, | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
but it is bringing people in. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
I've never seen the city centre look so busy in so many years, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
so I think it's really done a lot for us. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
It's unusual, isn't it? | 0:27:07 | 0:27:09 | |
Why would you want to come and see one-third of a wind turbine blade? | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
That's all it is. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
I love it. I think it looks brilliant. Work of art. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
I'd call it more of a display than an artwork... | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
-But that's just me. -And I love it. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
With more than ten months of brilliant events yet to come, | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
I've only had a small taste of what the City of Culture has to offer... | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
..but I'm excited by what I've seen. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
There's a buzz in the city again and it's really emotional to see. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
Finally, we can silence the critics and stop putting ourselves down. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
This year, we're the City of Culture. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
Next year, who knows? | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
I'm sure we'll be the capital of the north. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
I'll leave you with a love poem to Hull, | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
created for the City of Culture, | 0:27:59 | 0:28:00 | |
written by local poet Shane Rhodes. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
Peel back the writer and you have a filleter | 0:28:08 | 0:28:12 | |
Peel back the filleter and you have a trawlerman | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
Peel back the trawlerman and you have a trawlerman's dad | 0:28:16 | 0:28:21 | |
Peel back the trawlerman's dad and you have a stowaway. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:27 |