Breathing Colour, 2024

Breathing Colour is a celebratory, joyful and uplifting textile installation, immersive in colour, form and sound.

Occupying the North Transept of Blackburn Cathedral, the site-responsive textile sculpture evoked the movement of cloth throughout the factory, travelling in waves and folds through the machinery. The suspended form initially lay on the cathedral floor, before reaching up to tower nine metres into the vaulted ceiling, then descending back down. 

This rise and fall reflected 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 Studio.

Known for her hand woven artworks, the residency presented a new challenge for Selby. In weaving, colour is often part of the construction of the cloth itself, created through the intersection of warp and weft threads. In contrast, when printing, colour is applied to the surface of a pre-woven cloth, much like an artist’s canvas. Collaborating with a printing factory opened up a different set of possibilities, and the final artwork combined the meticulous nature of weaving with the printing expertise of the factory. The design directly relates to Selby’s weaving practice – building the pattern stripe by stripe to reflect how woven cloth is built thread by thread.

During the residency, 160 employees chose a single tone with a memory or association behind it. The arrangement of colour is initially inspired by the methodical organisation of the colour swatches and colour cards found in the Standfast & Barracks archive. Construction of the piece was inspired by lenticular printing, with the cloth stitched into concertinaed ‘gills’. The finished work comprised 100 metres of printed and pleated fabric, marking 100 years of Standfast & Barracks.

Selby collaborated with composer-artist Peter Coyte to craft a sound piece, which captured the rhythms of the machinery and the relationship between river and factory, as well as paying homage to the factory’s brass band.

This residency was a co-commission between the National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial. Breathing Colour was re-exhibited during BTB25 in Lancaster’s Ashton Memorial, in the city that is also home to Standfast & Barracks. 

As a legacy of the project, Selby created an ongoing collection that invites people to share personal colour memories and associations, exploring the connections we make with colour from both a sensory and emotional perspective.

Join Margo Selby’s Living Colour Chart

In Focus

During her residency, Margo Selby uncovered the longstanding history of the Standfast & Barracks factory brass band, part of a rich tradition shared by many northern factories with deep industrial roots.⁠
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In response, and in collaboration with composer Peter Coyte, she created a sound piece featuring musicians from the Morecambe Brass Band. The recording captures the musicians’ breaths, inhaling and exhaling through their instruments, a direct nod to the installation’s title, Breathing Colour.⁠
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The work weaves together the rhythms of factory machinery and the flow of the nearby river, while paying tribute to the factory’s musical heritage. At the 2024 festival, The Leyland Band performed alongside the installation, bringing these themes to life.⁠

Artist

Margo Selby is a British textile artist and designer of woven textiles working with colour and geometric form. Her practice as a weaver is at the heart of all of the studio projects. Selby has established an expansive approach to working in textiles and, throughout her work, explores the relationship between man and machine, hand and industry, craft and technology.

Manufacturer

Established in 1924 in Lancaster, Standfast & Barracks is 13 renowned for its impressive heritage of textile printing. For 100 years, design, creativity, and innovation have been at the centre of development, with expertise in both conventional printing techniques and ground- breaking digital inkjet technology. Part of the international Sanderson Design Group, Standfast & Barracks hosts this artistic residency as part of its centenary year.

British Textile Biennial

This work was a co-commission by the National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial. The British Textile Biennial throws a spotlight on the nation’s creativity, innovation and expression in textiles against the backdrop of the impressive infrastructure of the cotton industry in Pennine Lancashire.

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