Art in Manufacturing: Abigail Hampsey + Artisan Food Producers

Focus: Abigail Hampsey + Bronzecast, JJ Sandham LTD and Artisan Food Producers⁠

For artist Abigail Hampsey, food making is an act of preservation. Running a wholesale bakery in Lancaster enables her to sustain her studio practice, creating a symbiotic relationship in which art and manufacturing continuously nourish one another. Hampsey explores preservation in its broadest sense: from the traditional methods used to extend the life of food, to the ways recipes, rituals and shared meals carry knowledge, memory and culture between generations. At a time when industrial food production has increasingly removed the hand from the making process, her work celebrates artisan food production as a way of preserving both craft and community.⁠
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Working with independent foundry Bronzecast in Ormskirk who employ the ceramic shell lost wax casting method, Hampsey has cast breads and other foods in bronze, transforming everyday objects into enduring sculptures. The work draws a parallel between bronze – a material long associated with artistic value and permanence – and a simple loaf of bread, made from just a handful of ingredients, which she considers an increasingly precious object in contemporary society.⁠
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Hampsey’s new film, a work in three episodes that run concurrently for 13 minutes – the time that focaccia takes to bake in the oven – documents food production and traditional methods of food preservation including smoking, drying, curing, freezing and salting.⁠
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The episodes capture oral traditions of preservation, recipes, community and making; Hampsey’s daily life in the bakery and studio and time spent at JJ Sandham LTD, who have been crafting award-winning cheese from rural Lancashire since 1929, along with a network of artisan food producers, Llewellyn’s Restaurant, London and Bronzecast. Focus traces acts of making, baking and preservation across bakeries, foundries, farms and kitchens.⁠

This Project is a Co-Commission with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and the University of Lancashire.⁠

Exhibition Talk

1:30pm, Sunday 5th July

Abigail Hampsey in Conversation with Claire Mander, Director of theCOLAB and National Festival of Making Board Member, and Elena Jackson, National Festival of Making Director & Programme Curator of Art in Manufacturing.

Blakey Moor Terrace

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Access

Level access to ground floor – the level access entrance is to the left of the open entrance. The first floor is only accessible via a staircase.

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