2024 Festival Dates: 6 & 7 July
Assembly was a sculptural work by artist Maisie Pritchard, public workshop participants and Blackburn College students studying courses in Creative Arts and Design. Utilising broken parts, pieces and components, Assembly investigated the potential in found objects and waste to make sculpture that is immediate and accessible.
Assembly was a collaborative making project that began in a vacant room of the former Lewis Textile Museum over the Festival weekend. Here Maisie kick-started an accumulation of sculptural work that explored the properties of paper clay, and how it can be applied to existing shapes and objects. The space operated as an open studio, inhabited by paper waste, furniture parts, and artworks at various stages of Maisie’s making process. The public were invited to occupy the space, observe her working, and take part in the different stages of paper clay making.
Maisie then delivered three workshops with members of the public and students from Blackburn College. She guided participants through different stages of her making processes, from modroc-ing and pulping with paper clay, to finishing and painting.
The final products were assembled as an interactive exhibition that could be altered, moved and reconfigured by the public, to make new agglomerations of objects that explored the coalescence of art and design. The work was exhibited for three weeks at Prism Contemporary in November and December 2022.
About the artist
Maisie Pritchard is an artist based at Paradise Works in Salford, Manchester. She has a material-based practice, and is concerned with the juncture between artistic production and functional design. Operating within this grey area, she is interested in how these disciplines can crossover to generate semi-functional sculptural artworks. Maisie is always thinking of ways to promote social engagement and fun within her practice by working collaboratively with artists and the public to create playful or useful artworks; especially through teaching, sharing, and exchanging creative skills and making processes.
Visit Maisie’s Website
