Assembly: Maisie Pritchard

Utilising broken furniture parts, pieces and components, artist Maisie Pritchard combined her own sculptural practice with public workshops to create Assembly.

The collaborative project investigated the potential in found objects and waste to make sculpture that is immediate and accessible. Maisie kick-started the project by creating a weekend pop-up studio where the public were invited to occupy the space, observe her working, and take part in the different stages of paper clay making.

Over the course of the festival weekend, an accumulation of sculptural work developed that explored the properties of paper clay, and how it can be applied to existing shapes and objects. The space was inhabited by paper waste, furniture parts, and artworks at various stages of Maisie’s making process.

Alongside the Open Studio sessions, Maisie delivered three workshops with members of the public and students from Blackburn College.

She guided participants through different stages of her making processes, from modroc-ing and pulping with paper clay, to finishing and painting.

The final products of the sessions were assembled as an interactive exhibition at Prism Contemporary, Blackburn.

The exhibition pieces could be altered, moved and reconfigured by audiences, to make new agglomerations of objects that explored the coalescence of art and design.

About Maisie Pritchard

Maisie Pritchard is an artist based at Paradise Works in Salford, Manchester. She has a material-based practice, and is concerned with the juncture between artistic production and functional design.

Operating within this grey area, she is interested in how these disciplines can crossover to generate semi-functional sculptural artworks.

Maisie is always thinking of ways to promote social engagement and fun within her practice by working collaboratively with artists and the public to create playful or useful artworks; especially through teaching, sharing, and exchanging creative skills and making processes.

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Photography Beatrice Davidson, Jack Bolton and Robin Zahler.