As part of the Hull Maritime Museum transformation, three sets of artists have been commissioned to create work within the theme of being at sea.
With creative freedom, there have been different responses from each artist providing a different and personal perspectives alongside the more traditional stories which will be covered within our galleries.
Here Patricia MacKinnon-Day talks about the film, She Who Sails and the research undertaken to create the new piece of work from a national perspective.
Tell us more about yourself.
I have lived and worked all my life in cities. I grew up in inner-city Glasgow but now live in a beautiful, peaceful, inspirational rural location in North Wales. I work in various media, repurposing everyday objects and materials often found on site and in film, performance and photography.
I was proud to be awarded a Research Fellowship by Liverpool John Moores University in 2022.
I completed my MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art (1992 -1994) and gained a Double First Class Honours with distinction at Liverpool School of Art and Design (1989 -1991). I later completed a PhD entitled: Intimacy and Immensity. A Practice-Led Exploration of People and Place (2017).
Can you talk about some of your previous work?
I have worked in various public contexts, including psychiatric hospitals, shipyards, farming, and social housing. Significantly, my subjects are often outside the mainstream or on the periphery and are very often marginalised communities. In the past, I have included projects with shepherdesses, shipyard workers, market traders, care homes for the elderly, female farmers, and asylum seekers, to name but a few. My work has been shown at various art institutions, including Tate Liverpool, Imperial War Museum, The Whitworth, Gallery of Modern Art, and recently at The Time Space Existence Biennial in Venice.
“My starting point is outside the studio and conventional gallery system, my interests extend further than the realities of industry, commerce and government into the intuitive, emotional and the personal” Tracing the Landscape, 8th March 2018, BBC International Day, Woman’s Hour.
Collaboration has always been central to my practice. I have experience working and developing relationships with experts and practitioners in various specialisms and understand their value and importance. Previous collaborations have involved Amnesty International, architects, scientists, engineers, psychiatrists, ecologists, urban designers, musicians, writers and poets. Therefore, working closely with experts in their field unveils some of the world's most fascinating aspects, which is not only fascinating but also a special privilege.
“Mackinnon-Day’s subject matter and interests are wide-ranging and part of the success of her many projects is due to her meticulous approach, evidencing a deep respect for her subject matter. She excels at bringing an audience’s attention to people and places that are sometimes hidden or overlooked. She brings the lived experience of others into visibility.” (Sam Ainsley, A Market Trader’s Story (2025).
Tell us more about the work and theme you are creating for Hull Maritime?
In 2019, the Hull Maritime project commissioned me to create a new film responding to “What’s it Like to Be at Sea?”
She Who Sails explores a range of personal insights by women seafarers about their passion, the dangers, challenges at sea, analogue, digital navigation and misogyny.
I have been researching the lives and experiences of women seafarers, working with young female seafarers who skipper historic sailing ships around the UK coast. Also, as part of the film, I worked with Clare Drury on a soundtrack for the film sung by the Freedom Chorus Maritime Singers from Hull. This has been an exciting collaborative process. I presented Clare with a selection of historical texts and she then produced a series of beautifully arranged compositions.
What was your inspiration?
It was inspirational to spend time on board with female sailors and listen to their experiences and challenges. In spite of these challenges, they have managed to access and break down the barriers to working on tall ships.
The film will show the realities of today and historically, women working on tall ships and their personal journeys and tenacity to succeed. It acknowledges the value and significance of their expertise and contribution to the seafaring community, the unique social interaction between the women on board and their courage and strength to succeed in a predominantly male world.
Why did you want to focus on this theme?
My aim for the film work She Who Sails was to bring apparently uneventful and overlooked aspects of sailing experience into visibility, investigate the ordinary rather than the heroic and monumental and invite the viewer into a rarely seen world.
The film weaves historical text, maritime film archives and behind-the-scenes footage to explore the realities of everyday sailing. It aims to give female sailors a voice and illuminate the stories of historic and contemporary female seafarers. It is a poetic, multi-layered composition exploring the challenges faced by women at sea, with the original soundtrack sung by Freedom Chorus Maritime Singers.
Did you have to do any research?
If so, what did you do?
My methodology is slow and undramatic, but this approach is essential to my practice. It allows time to develop a respect for people and place. I use ‘palimpsest’ to describe excavating and investigating the multiple layers within a specific context.
I spent several days filming on board the tall ships Pioneer and Irene, talking and observing the female sailors who are the main protagonists in She Who Sails.
I also read a considerable amount of historical literature and archive material to try to comprehend what life at sea was like for women today and historically. I was particularly intrigued by Suzanne Stark’s Female Tars, which is probably one of the more harrowing insights.
There were sixty women on board Sir John Arundel’s ships when they set out from Southampton in December 1379 to go to the aid of the Duke of Brittany, then fighting in Brittany. The women on board were married, widows and young ladies of rank.
A gale struck the ships off the coast of Cornwall and it seemed that the whole fleet would be wrecked. As the wind continued to mount, the terrified men became convinced that the storm was a supernatural one caused by the presence of the women.
According to a long-held superstition, even one woman at sea could bring forth a fatal storm and they had sixty with them. All sixty women were thrown overboard.
The remedy failed, the storm continued to threaten the fleet, and twenty-five of Arundel’s ships were wrecked on islands off the Irish Coast.
Do you have a favourite/powerful part of the film? If so, what is it?
All the women’s stories are fascinating, but in particular the bit when Juley, an experienced sailor, questions why she is often given more work in the kitchen when “it’s an all-male crew”.
Also, when pulling up heavy chains from the deck below, Jess talks about the impact of labour-intensive work on her body.
Are you looking forward to the response from visitors to your work?
She Who Sails will become even more significant when it is screened at the refurbishment launch of Hull Maritime Museum, as part of the completed restoration of two historic ships and the new town centre public space development. The film will be coming home to Hull, a seafaring community, which feels fitting and appropriate. I look forward to receiving the visitors’ feedback, which will extend the narratives and yield more insights and knowledge.
The trailer below give you a glimpse of the film which will be part of the new exhibitions and displays within the refurbished Hull Maritime Museum. Watch a trailer of the new film here.
