Reviews / Everyday stories that put Shetland on the map
“WE MUST start the story with an empty chair. If it wasn’t empty, however, we wouldn’t have a story. But it is and we do, so we must tell it.”
If you’re a fan of the 2005 film Nanny McPhee, starring Emma Thompson, you’ll remember this opening line and the opening shot of an empty pink chair which belongs to Mrs Brown, the deceased mother of the Brown children.
The pink chair had a story to tell of grief and loss, but also how a family could re-emerge into happiness by the magical mysterious presence of Nanny McPhee writes Alex Purbrick.
Which says a lot about the power of an inanimate, unassuming object such as a chair to tell a story. It becomes a carrier of memories, a silent witness to the human experience and a holder of all the hopes and dreams we carry inside ourselves.
Can a chair beckon us to sit and listen to its stories?
Quite possibly, which is perhaps how young Shetland photography student Anna Cockayne became entwined with Shetland’s very own pink story telling chair.
After visiting Lerwick’s community recycling centre, The Shetland Home Company, in 2024 Anna noticed a pink chair sitting in the corner of the building.
It had an air of mystery surrounding it, which intrigued her – so she bought it thinking it would be a perfect chair for her bedroom.
During this time Anna was preparing for her final project of an NC art course at UHI Shetland and was trying to decide what kind of artistic medium she could use for her assignment.
She decided to take photos of friends and family sitting on the pink chair in various locations based upon her growing love of photography which she had discovered during her art studies.
After she graduated in summer 2024, and her project completed, the pink chair was relegated back into her bedroom.
But the chair had more stories to tell and in 2025 Anna and her mum Jane thought it would be fun if Anna’s original photography project could be expanded and taken on a journey gathering stories from interesting people from a myriad of places across the Isles.
After receiving funding from Youthlink Scotland and Creative Scotland, Jane and Anna sought the assistance of Ability Shetland and the New Life Church. They invited young people from Ability Shetland’s holiday clubs in Lerwick, Cunningsburgh, Whalsay and Walls to participate in the project.
The first challenge they encountered was how to fit the pink chair into their car.
“It was very funny that no matter how many times we tried to fit it, it wouldn’t go in,” she explained. “There was only one way it would fit and we had it in every position before we got the right one.”
The pink chair travelled far and wide, north to Norwick Beach in Unst, and south to St Ninian’s, as well as Skerries, Yell, Whalsay, North, West and Central Mainland, listening to folk’s stories and the places that are meaningful to them.
People of all ages from two years to 87 had their portrait taken with the pink chair and all the photos were gathered together to make a peerie booklet, called Putting Shetland on the Map.
Jane and Anna would like the book to be “a celebration of the many people whose voices and stories may not usually be heard”.
“We wanted folk to be included from all abilities and all walks of life as well as highlighting the unusual, quirky places throughout Shetland.”
Each participant has received a copy of the book and copies are available for free from Market House, New Life Church, the newly opened Shetland Home Company and the NorthLink ferry terminal.
For now, the pink chair is resting from its adventures and is sitting in Jane and Anna’s living room beside the window where it gazes out across Weisdale Voe musing over all the stories, laughter and joy it has encountered on its travels across Shetland.
Through its quiet presence, it has shared many stories of ordinary folk and their lives and hopefully will inspire readers to explore the lesser-known places in Shetland and to have as much fun and adventure as Jane, Anna and the pink chair have experienced.
But the intrigue of the pink chair remains. Where did it come from and where will it go next on its journey as Shetland’s pink storytelling chair?
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