The film When Sally Met Sally is a playful, layered narrative that connects the Scarce Yellow Sally stonefly and a fictitious young woman named Sally, living in rural Wrexham in 1959, when the Scarce Yellow Sally was discovered in the River Dee.  Although the stonefly had been known for over a century in other UK rivers, this was a special moment for the local area. The film allows the viewer to reflect on the beauty and fragility of our natural surroundings.

The Scarce Yellow Sally’s invisibility and ecological fragility successfully sparked discussions with different communities about isolation, well-being, and loneliness. The Art Film When Sally Met Sally straddles the line between scientific reports explaining the significance and importance of the stonefly and the story of Sally, a fictitious character, who recalls, as a 22-year-old woman, the discovery of the Scarce Yellow Sally in Bangor-on-Dee in 1959. Young Sally loves nature, she is carefree and happy, and (just like the Scarce Yellow Sally) loves dancing. 

Today’s Sally compares the fragility and invisibility of the Scarce Yellow Sally to the challenges she now faces in old age and finds that being immersed in nature strengthens her physical and mental well-being. 

The interchange between fiction and reality provided an opportunity for creative intervention with the elderly members of the Rainbow Centre community, Dancing Shoes, Wrexham and the residents of Bangor on Dee. Workshops included dance performances and film presentations, followed by discussions, as well as painting, drawing, and sharing of memories. These activities were relaxed and conversations flowed about well-being, invisibility, ecology and environmental changes since 1959. 

About: Patricia MacKinnon-Day is an artist whose work has been exhibited at venues throughout the UK and elsewhere. Specialising in film and installation, her work has generated a series of socially engaged gallery installations and site-specific corporate and public projects nationally and internationally. A recent film, The Start of All Imaginings, about market traders was selected for presentation at the Venice Time Space Existence Architectural Biennial (2023), shown at Palazzo Mora, Venice. The Calling Sheds, a collaborative work about the language and working processes of four UK and Republic of Ireland female shepherds, was exhibited at Tate Liverpool (2019)

Her research challenges the preconceptions of an artist as simply the producer of a product and seeks to examine the artist's role in the whole process. She has researched local communities for over twenty-five years; her practice is about widening access and working with diverse communities. She endeavours to give voice to the ordinary and reveal hidden identities within specific contexts’ monumental but transient frame.

Born in Glasgow, Patricia holds a BA (Hons) double first with distinction from LJMU (1989) and a Master’s from the Royal College of Art (1994) and gained a PhD from LJMU (2017) and was awarded an Honorary Research Fellowship in 2022 

This work was commissioned as part of the Natur Am Byth! project by Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru.