An Art in Manufacturing Publication, 2025

Radical Pairings documents five women artists who exhibited new work in 2022, created during Art in Manufacturing residencies with manufacturers in the North: Hannah Leighton-Boyce, Liz Wilson, Nicola Ellis, Jacqueline Donachie, and Raisa Kabir.

Art critic and writer Elizabeth Fullerton was invited to explore these artists’ residencies, resulting in the essay Artists and Factories Make Radical Pairings which forms the central piece of writing in this publication. Discussing their practices and the unique nature of working as an artist within the industrial setting, Fullerton introduces work created in response to and alongside workforce communities.

The Radical Pairings publication was created and edited as a partnership between the National Festival of Making and theCOLAB.

Providing introduction, context and conversational insights are pieces by Director and Programme Curator, Elena Jackson, Director and Curator of theCOLAB Claire Mander and Artist Jamie Holman.

Radical Pairings was launched at the 2025 National Festival of Making, where a retrospective exhibition curated by Liz Wilson celebrated the work of the artists, inviting new visitors to experience their work in a gallery environment.

A digital version of the Radical Pairings publication is available to download for free on this page.

From short-term residencies to long-term collaborations, each artist embedded themselves within a manufacturing environment, working closely with skilled labour forces, specialist materials and industrial processes. These residencies offered an unusual but generative context with the factory floor becoming an extension of a studio, the rhythms of production informing new ways of making and thinking.

Radical Pairings gestures not only to the innovative collaborations forged between artists and manufacturers, but also to the deeper reimagining made possible when these encounters are shaped by openness, experimentation and care. In doing so, it invites us to rethink the boundaries between industry and art as co-creative forces with the potential to shape new cultural, material, and social futures.

Publication Download

A digital version of Radical Pairings is available to download for free now.

Centred around Elizabeth Fullerton’s essay, Artists and Factories Make Radical Pairings, the publication features interviews with each artist, and providing introduction, context and conversational insights to the publication are pieces by Director and Programme Curator, Elena Jackson, Director and Curator of theCOLAB Claire Mander and Artist Jamie Holman.

Artists + Manufacturers

Radical Pairings showcases the work of five exceptional women artists:

Jacqueline Donachie + Lancashire Saw Company
Nicola Ellis + Ritherdon
Raisa Kabir + John Spencer and Queen Street Mill
Hannah Leighton-Boyce + Darwen Teraccotta
Liz Wilson + CNC Robotoics

Discover the unique stories behind each Art in Manufacturing residency below.

Learn more

Exhibition and Publication Credits

Claire Mander – Co-Editor
Daisy Williamson – Co-Editor, Publication Producer
Elena Jackson – Co-Editor, Programme Curator
Elizabeth Fullerton – Writer
Jamie Holman – Writer
Lauren Zawadzki – Festival Director
Liz Wilson – Exhibition Curator
Simon Webben – Co-Editor, Marketing
Source Creative – Exhibition Graphics
Teacake Design – Publication Design

Photography by Danny Allison, Fiona Finchett, Jules Lister, Richard Tymon and Robin Zahler.