5 Minutes with Liaqat Rasul: Memory, Making and the Factory Floor

Now in its ninth year, Art in Manufacturing places artists directly on the factory floor. One of this year's commissions is by Liaqat Rasul, a queer Welsh-Pakistani artist whose work unfolds among the machines of Herbert Parkinson, a John Lewis textile factory in Darwen, Lancashire.

Rasul, who works in collage and sculpture, transforms discarded materials - fabric offcuts, tickets, wire hangers - into compositions that explore identity, care and mental health. At Herbert Parkinson, he has been gathering offcuts and reflections from the people who make the cushions, curtains and soft furnishings that fill homes across the UK. The result is a series of sculptural mobiles that examine memory, community and who we become through making.

Liaqat Rasul's textural sculptures, created during the residency with Art in Manufacturing. Photo by Robin Zahler.

This collaboration is part of the Art in Manufacturing strand of the National Festival of Making, an initiative that pairs UK manufacturers with artists. Since its inception in 2016, the programme has supported over 35 artists in exploring the creative potential of industry, connecting hand, heart and machine. Rasul's partnership is with Herbert Parkinson. The factory, which joined the John Lewis Partnership in 1953, employs over 200 people and has maintained British manufacturing at the heart of Lancashire for decades...

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Image Credits:

Lead Image: Liaqat Rasul exhibits his scultures at The National Festival of Making. Photo Credit: Robin Zahler

All other images as credited in photo captions.