National Festival of Making with Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery and Artangel presents Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel.

Come As You Really Are is a new exhibition by artist Hetain Patel that celebrates the creativity, dedication, and individuality of hobbyists across the UK.

It brings together thousands of objects that have been created, collected, or modified by people in their spare time—each one a quiet act of resistance in a world shaped by consumerism.

Through a nationwide call-out and in collaboration with galleries and arts organisations, Hetain invited members of the public to share the activities they devote themselves to outside of work and routine.

As part of the 2025 National Festival of Making, with Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery we will exhibit Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel, a new exhibition featuring contributions from hobbyists across Lancashire and the UK.

About the Artist

Hetain Patel is a London-based artist and filmmaker, whose work challenges reductive categorisations of identity and art. Often rooted in personal experience and that of his immigrant family, Patel’s work invites us to see identity as multi-dimensional and complex, linked as much to what we choose to do, as to that which is assigned by birth, heritage, social norms, and conventions.

Patel’s films, sculptures, live performances, paintings and photographs have been shown worldwide in galleries, theatres and on iconic public screens, including Piccadilly Circus, London, and Times Square, New York. His works have been presented at the Venice Biennale, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing and in London at institutions including Tate Modern and Sadler’s Wells.

Patel’s works are in public and private collections in the UK and internationally, including Tate, British Council, Arts Council England, Government Art Collection, Manchester Art Gallery, M+ Museum Hong Kong, KNMA New Delhi, and Fondazione In Between Art Film, Rome.

About Artangel

Artangel produces and presents extraordinary art in unexpected places across London, the UK, and beyond. For over thirty years, Artangel has generated some of the most widely discussed art of recent times, including prominent large-scale projects with artists who have become household names in the UK, including the likes of Jeremy Deller, Roger Hiorns, Michael Landy, Steve McQueen and Rachel Whiteread.

Recent Artangel projects include Sarah Sze’s The Waiting Room, Marcus Coates’ The Directors, Afterness on Orford Ness, Suffolk, Evan Roth’s Red Lines, Jonathan Glazer’s short film STRASBOURG 1518, made for the BBC, Elizabeth Price’s SLOW DANS, Oscar Murillo’s Frequencies and Steve McQueen’s Year 3, in collaboration with Tate Britain and A New Direction.

Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel

Commissioned and Produced by Artangel. In partnership with National Festival of Making with Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery; Factory International, Manchester; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool; Museum of Making, Derby Museums Trust; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Barnsley Civic; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; CCA Derry~Londonderry; Hospitalfield, Arbroath and Tate St Ives.

Supported by Artangel’s Guardian Angels.

With thanks to Creative Lives.