Somewhere and some time in a market

It’s Saturday morning but I am not at The Pickering Markets, working. It closed permanently. The pandemic took three months in 2020 away from business here, closed. Now a new shutdown affects its ability to stay open, and it closes on December 26, 2020.


On a metal kitchen stool my laptop rest, so that I can hear and see a show play while I work. Wash dishes, pause. Sweep, play again. I see UK artist Yinka Shonibare go about making his art. Pause, put recycled items in the bin outside, play on. Brilliant Ideas on knowledge.ca is running in my attempt to find art in my life and in my day. The Brixton Market in London appears and I stop to pay attention. The people, The artist Yinka is shopping at this market. Sourcing for a future art raw material: African fabrics. These materials are his unique signature. I am pulled back to being in the market I knew.


I would say Yinka is using a dreaming eye, if he is like me. I did that when I wrote poetry, seeing something in my mind's eye. A future seeking process, imagining.



African design fabrics are not from Africa, this documentary tells me. Designs in vibrant colour are influenced by the Indonesian and produced by the Dutch. I am reminded at the market about first and second generation Canadians who make up so many vendors. I am influenced over time by this environment in the same way as these African fabrics. Like in a neighbourhood voices chatter in laughter and mingle. Baked foods in the food court, fruits and vegetables on stands form an array of colour.

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