"As if in a dream dreamt by another"

DAVID JACQUES at The Museum of Liverpool Life
23rd Oct - 3rd May

Reviewed by John Owen

The show title gives you a taste of the pictures you are about to see - allusive and ephemeral, almost dawn but not yet out of the night. I went along to the opening, there was a brief speech by Frank Cottrell Boyce a pal and admirer, but also a talented Liverpool filmmaker and director.

What the work represents is the early history of Liverpool. The immigration of the people and cultures that have flown in and out –up and down the Mersey. Just like waves upon the shore, waves of people breaking, coming and going, some at high tide, hopes high expectant, others after the ebb flowing out to sea- never to return to the land or the people they know.

History as metaphor for future

What it signifies for the city and the people now - it is important to cast the time frame, and use this as a reference point. This beautiful set of bannered images contrasts migrants, asylum seekers and human cargo juxtaposed nostalgically, against the sea of change. The port a doorway or destination heralding new life, new ideals. Now a new set of people are in motion due to war, economic displacement, in search of a better life free from fear, worry and strife. Some are treated worse than cargo. Dreams can be bought and sold too.

What were these people trying to say? Figure it out for yourself- we all have dreams. Impossible dreams some say. They carry theirs in suitcases pockets or minds and the river still flows and carries our hopes and dreams with its magical qualities.

Banners are the social symbol of struggle, a definition, a landmark of how far the people have got in their pursuit of those neatly folded dreams. The chance to unfurl their ideas, wishes and hopes for a better world. The passing of the impossible dream . This dream of Liverpool and its future are represented in the socialists struggle of the people unseen, unheard. Ordinary people who banded together to fight to challenge the rulers of the day not for more crumbs but for the cake itself.

Some of the best pictures are in the rather swanky “Newsbar” in Water Street, New Zealand House Building. One statistic grabbed it was one picture:-

Official census figure for Liverpool:
Population in 1931 852,000
Population in 1996 467,996