The 86 book, by artist Nicki McCubbing, captures the quirkiness and uniqueness of the renowned Liverpool bus route. It celebrates the beauty found in everyday interactions and the glimmers of humanity we experience through community connection. Through our PICTON PLAY projects, we are emphasising the importance of listening, connecting, and reflecting the shared human experience, and creating art that reflects our community.
The 86 was developed during an artist residency on the number 86 bus, a route from Smithdown Road to the city centre through our local neighbourhood. Nicki has captured conversations, moments of laughter, sadness, and confusion over her 3-month ‘Listening’ residency. The project captures the diverse passengers with love and humour, emphasising that ‘ordinary people see themselves in art’ and focusing on the small gestures and snippets of conversations that reflect the mixture of individuals that experience that strange mix of feeling both together and lonely on public transport. The book will be launched at an event at Edge Hill Station.
About PICTON PLAY
PICTON PLAY brings together artists, community organisers, young people and other curious residents to celebrate the existing creativity in our neighbourhood and explore new ways of getting together through play.
Listening Residencies are the first phase of PICTON PLAY, our Creative Neighbourhoods project. It has hosted artists in unexpected places like buses, parks and supermarkets, engaging with local residents through meals, pop-up events, and strange happenings. Through the residencies, we have learned about local creativity and built connections around the themes of play, gathering, and joy.
About Nicki McCubbing
Nicki McCubbing is an artist, filmmaker, and writer from Liverpool. She has exhibited sculpture and installation nationally and internationally and her first short film ‘The Mummy’ supported by Arts Council England has been selected for several film festivals. This residency perfectly suited Nicki’s passion for observing people, eavesdropping, and collecting stories, having ridden this bus route between the city centre and her home for over 25 years. The resulting book is a collection of small observed gestures and snippets of conversations that creates a unique portrait of the 86.
Partners
Arriva supported the residency and Culture Liverpool and Liverpool City Council have supported PICTON PLAY through their Creative Neighbourhoods programme, an ongoing collaborative project for communities throughout Liverpool.
The foreword to The 86 book was written by Lynsey Hanley, a writer from Birmingham who has lived with her family in Liverpool since 2012. She is the author of Estates: An Intimate History (2007), and Respectable: Crossing The Class Divide (2016), and is a visiting fellow at the Research Centre for Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. She is a freelance writer for publications including the Guardian and the Financial Times and writes and makes programmes for BBC Radio.
The book was designed by Lisa Robson: @lostplots
Credits to all the amazing partners who made this project possible.
