To develop the colour palette for the textile art installation Breathing Colour as part of Art in Manufacturing. Margo enlisted 160 factory staff at Standfast & Barracks, each selecting a colour connected to a personal memory or association. We are now broadening this initiative to create a dynamic, living colour chart.

 

 

A celebratory textile installation, immersive in colour, form and sound, joyful and uplifting. Occupying the North Transept of Blackburn Cathedral, the site- responsive textile sculpture evokes the movement of cloth throughout the factory, travelling in waves and folds through the machinery. The suspended form initially lies on the cathedral floor, before reaching up to tower 9 metres into the vaulted ceiling, then descending back down.

This rise and fall reflects a respiratory waveform, a deep breath in and out again; ‘Breathing Colour’ the very nature of the workforce at Standfast & Barracks which aligns so closely with the work of Margo Selby.

 

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Breathing Colour | Living Colour Chart

We want your colour!

Please share a colour that is special to you. It might be a colour memory from childhood, a favourite pair of socks, or a colour that resonates with your emotions today. Make it as personal as you like.

 

 

As someone who has always loved colour I believe that each and every colour is beautiful and it is how they are organised and presented that makes them shine – what they are paired with or placed next to allows them to harmonise, blend, pop or complement each other.

One of the lovely elements of working with Standfast & Barracks has been to include the employees in the project by asking them to select the colour palette. Each employee chose a single colour which had a personal association to them which appears in the finished piece.

It was this involvement with the factory community which allowed each of the team to feel a sense of ownership and engage with the final work.

Creating public artwork allows me to connect to people from wide and varied communities and I’ve loved collecting the colours. These colour stories have moved myself and my studio team, making us smile, feel emotional and inviting us to develop a closeness to the people involved. We want to continue to work this way, so we have created a living colour chart which I would love you to be part of.

Who knows where this colour chart will lead us and we may use our living colour chart to inspire future artworks.

– Margo Selby 

 

 

 

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Margo Selby is a British textile artist and designer of woven textiles working with colour and geometric form. She studied at Chelsea College and the RCA, graduating in 2001. Margo has established an expansive approach to working in textiles – across art, design and industry. Margo’s practice as a weaver is at the heart of all of the studio projects. Throughout her work, Margo explores the relationship between man and machine, hand and industry, craft and technology.

 

This is a National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial Co-commission,

Photography – Jack Bolton & Jules Lister