Exhibition | Textile Biennial | Breathing Colour
Breathing Colour in Lancaster
The British Textile Biennial is a month-long free festival of contemporary art, commissioning artists and designers from all over the world to make work inspired by the context and legacy of the textile industry in East Lancashire and its global impact.
In 2025, the festival expands its reach to the city of Lancaster with Margo Selby’s textile artwork, Breathing Colour, immersive in colour, form and sound, on exhibition in the imposing Ashton Memorial building. Made during an Art in Manufacturing residency at Standfast & Barracks, this site-responsive textile sculpture evokes the movement of cloth throughout the factory. The audible piece by Peter Coyte that accompanies the textile, incorporates the sounds and the voices of the factory. The 160 colours within the work were all contributed with personal colour stories by the 160 employees working within the factory. This project marked the beginning of Margo Selby’s ‘Living Colour Chart.’
We would like to extend an invitation to join Margo at the private view of Breathing Colour at British Textile Biennial, from 5 - 7pm on Thursday 16 October. Please click here to RSVP by Monday 13 October.
Events Programme:
- Thursday 16th October | Private View
Ashton Memorial Lancaster
17:00 - 19:00 - Friday 17th October | Panel Discussion
The Future of Colour | Ticketed event only
Ashton Memorial Lancaster
10:00 - 12:30 - Sunday 19th October | The Morecambe Brass Band Performance
Ashton Memorial
13:30 - 15:30
If you are planning on attending any of these events, please let us know so Margo has the opportunity to greet you.
The British Textile Biennial offers an extraordinary and incredibly accessible opportunity to witness textile artistry in many forms, from innovative contemporary installations to traditional craft demonstrations by master artisans and community-based projects.
"It's a privilege to be part of this international line-up of artists which have been brought to Lancashire for this diverse programme of exhibitions. It's such an inspiring curation of thought provoking textile art embracing a wide range of perspectives and ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing how the ‘Breathing Colour’ piece will hang in the striking Ashton Memorial building and how it will converse with this new space. It's particularly poignant that it should hang in Lancaster, the town where it was made and the town where many of the 160 employees of Standfast and Barracks live, the contributors of the 160 colours which were used within the piece."
– Margo Selby
Breathing Colour, is a co-commission by the National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial. Made during Margo’s 2024 Art in Manufacturing residency at Standfast & Barracks, renowned for their impressive heritage of textile printing as well as their ground-breaking digital inkjet technology, this site-responsive textile sculpture evokes the movement of cloth throughout the factory, travelling in waves and folds through the machinery.
THE FUTURE OF COLOUR PANEL DISCUSSION | BOOK TICKETS