Radical Pairings, 2025 (Exhibition)

Radical Pairings is an exhibition and publication edited and published by the National Festival of Making and theCOLAB which explores the National Festival of Making’s headline residency and commissioning programme, Art in Manufacturing. The book documents five female artists’ residencies – Jacqueline Donachie, Nicola Ellis, Raisa Kabir, Hannah Leighton-Boyce, and Liz Wilson – undertaken in 2022 with manufacturers in the North of England. ⁠Art critic and writer Elizabeth Fullerton was invited to document these artists’ residencies, resulting in the essay “Artists and Factories Make Radical Pairings.”⁠

The publication can be downloaded here:

The inward flow of things ~ During my residency, Darwen Terracotta and Faience, an architectural ceramic and faience factory I observed paper’s crucial role in the slip casting process. Positioned between a damp tile and a wooden board, it formed an interstice that helped the heavy, wet tile dry without cracking. I became fascinated by these hidden, performative moments—how the paper yielded, expanded and contracted, and retained an impression of this interaction.

Medium: Waxed paper, 10mm steel bar, g-clamps, magnets.

First Impressions ~ The intaglio plates for these prints are tools made for the creation of the work Within arm’s reach. Unlike traditional etching plates, these are not uniformly shaped – they are double sided and unpolished, highlighting scored measurements and working lines, scratches and nail holes incurred during their making and use. First impressions has sister print which shows the other sides of the tools. For Radical Pairings the work was positioned leaning and raised on ceramic kiln temperate props.

Medium: Intaglio Print on Hahnemühle paper, Unique edition of 1. Float mounted, framed in oak with AR70 art glass. Framed dimensions: 1009 x719 mm

With arm’s reach ~ The curved plaster forms were created through actions of supporting, gliding, settling, slipping, and yielding. The profile of each form is taken from the tools used in the production of architectural moulds, the mother moulds that forms around the architectural that are rarely seen.  The work considers the articulations and gestures of my body within the factory, several of these are telescopic and extend as a form of architectural prothesis.

Material: plaster