Fabula un Facto is a playful installation that emulates industrial architecture. Inspired by both the culture and the physical environment of Cardboard Box Company, it invites audiences to experience the wonder of the factory floor, as seen through the eyes of Williams during her residency.
Growing up in a theme park where her family worked, an integral strand of Williams’ practice is curiosity – something that is imbued throughout this work. The installation borrows visual language from the creativity and innovation that exists, often unseen, in the production industry, and the staged experience and complex engineering of theme parks. Comparisons are drawn between the unlikely duo inspiring the name ‘play is in the making’ or Fabula un Facto.
During her residency, Williams was able to get close to the design process that occurs daily in the factory – understanding the actions of translating the 3D into 2D, and back into 3D again. Collaborating with the innovative designers at Cardboard Box Company, she could observe the communication and exchange of information that goes on between the teams – each person’s role integral to the process as a whole.
The installation intends to evoke a sense of wonder; What is it? How does it work? What does it do? Rather than a linear narrative, it offers an explorative experience that invites you to consider the possibility that, even if you don’t really understand something, you can still be in awe of it.
A playful structure, with passive interactive elements – it is both factory and machine. An immersive representation of the infinite nature of human innovation and a joyful reminder that play is, indeed, in the making.
For the first time in many years I feel like I have had the room to create something of scale, without a specific brief – it feels like a return to the sort of work that I really want to be making. I feel like I’ve really reconnected with my creative flow and am excited about how the residency is going to influence my work in the future.
Scaffold Design by Neil Davies
With thanks to: Wade Pickering – Pickerings Perforated Products for the donation of the conveyor tubes; the team at Cardboard Box Company in particular Marc Stobbs, Tom Penman, James Parkinson, Kristian Howson and Peter Longworth.
The Artist
Sam Williams imagines a world where physical limitations and perceived wisdom operate in flux. Her work draws from her childhood growing up in a theme park, Drayton Manor, where her family (and later she) worked. Using play structures, bold graphics and colourful patterns she dreams up environments that evoke joy and curiosity for audiences old and young.
The Manufacturer
Cardboard Box Company is a state of the art corrugated sheet plant that designs and manufactures corrugated board, based in Accrington, East Lancashire. The fourth Art in Manufacturing residency the company has embarked on, their history dates back to the mid-1970s. Their constant innovation since has led to their products receiving national and international print and design awards.
Photography by Emma Colbert-Mooring, Danny Allison, Fiona Finchett, Jules Lister and Robin Zahler
