Chad McCail: Hopes and Fears
Nexus Millfield Metro Station, Sunderland
From September 2023
Chad McCail (b. 1961, Manchester) is a printmaker, painter and sculptor. Since July 2022 McCail has been running workshops with Young Asian Voices and Pallion Action Group to devise Hopes and Fears, a large-scale mural which will be painted on Millfield Metro Station’s entrance wall in Summer 2023.
Hopes and Fears explores a collective experience of living and working in Sunderland and the hopes for Sunderland’s future. The mural touches on current concerns including the privatisation of the NHS, high rents and rising energy bills and food costs while searching for a different, kinder and more sustainable way of life.
The theme of the mural is community and the value of relationships. It will take the form of a storyboard which will wind across the wall telling a story in pictures. While I was working in Sunderland it became apparent how much nostalgia there is for the industrial past and an understanding that there was then a more cohesive community life. In the story long dead miners and shipyard workers rise from their graves and inspire the residents to begin to create a better world. – Chad McCail.
The Millfield Metro Station Mural Behind the Scenes Exhibition - In partnership and curated with Young Asian Voices
Hills Art Centre, Sunderland
Wednesday 31 July - Friday 1 September 2023
This exhibition (at Hills Art Centre, within Sunderland City Centre) explores behind the scenes of how the mural Hopes and Fears for Millfield Metro station came to life! From puppet making workshops and theatre, through to sketches, the exhibition opens up the conversations that led to the mural in a colourful celebration of Sunderland, community and how inclusion and diversity contribute to a better, smarter city and economy. Find out more about the McCail’s workshops with Young Asian Voices.
The members of Young Asian Voices are: Abdul Baten Chowdhury, Ashith Gounder, Kusuma Nandini Kavya, Mst Liza Begum, Premraj Pichairaju, Sabina Begum, Sima Begum, Syeda Sanzida Miah and Thahir Ahmed.
Hopes and Fears (In Progress)
Photos: Colin Davison