Factory International has announced the release of Factory Works, a new audio artwork created by artist Neville Gabie with Ninja Tune musician and DJ Nabihah Iqbal in collaboration with construction workers and manufacturers involved in the creation of Aviva Studios.
The album is available to stream for free on the Factory International website, where it can also be purchased as a limited-edition vinyl record. The record is also available to buy in person at Aviva Studios. An accompanying short film created by Gabie in collaboration with Mark Thomas of film studio Soup Collective and celebrating the people, sound and skill involved in the creation of Aviva Studios is also available to watch on the site. The film offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the build and features the whole workforce involved in the creation of the record.
Known for creating work that responds to people and places in moments of change, Gabie was commissioned by Factory International in 2019 to develop a project that would celebrate the construction workers, concrete pourers, steel workers and others involved in the creation of Aviva Studios. The artwork was made over a two-year period (spring 2020 – winter 2021) and focuses on the core materials that form the infrastructure of the building, such as steel, concrete, cloth, rubber, wood and glass. The audio includes industrial sounds and snippets of conversations with workers at five factories involved in the manufacture of these materials as well as those working on the construction site, all underpinned with original electronic music from Nabihah Iqbal.
1,500 copies of the limited-edition record have been created, each one with a unique sleeve artwork by design agency North. Every worker involved in the construction of Aviva Studios, from those working in factories to the on-site team, will receive a copy of the record.
Gabie said: “This was a wonderful opportunity to meet engineers, builders, steel fabricators, project managers, concrete experts, timber workers, finishers, sewing machinists, glass fitters, acoustic engineers, crane drivers, security guards and office staff, and to make something as a tribute to their contributions to the city. The challenge was coming up with the right idea. It needed to be simple and unique – and, once complete, it needed to be something we could give to everyone as a tribute to their achievements.”
Iqbal added: “Neville and I wanted to create something all-encompassing: a soundscape of the different workplaces, interwoven with voices and music. It’s been an impossible task to try and fit in all the sounds and stories that we collected over these two years or so, but I hope that what we’ve created offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of the people and the core materials that construct our buildings.”
John McGrath, artistic director and chief executive of Factory International, said: “It’s humbling to witness a great building emerge from the ground and realise how many skills and specialisms, how much care and precision, and how much hard, determined work has gone into its birth and growth. As a cultural organisation embedded in the city of Manchester, we wouldn’t be doing our own work properly if we didn’t find a way to express and respond to this extraordinary effort.
“Factory Works is both a tribute to and an expression of these workers, and is also a tribute to the work of those on whose shoulders we stand – the Manchester radicals of the past. It is fittingly strange, unexpected and celebratory.”
Neville Gabie’s work encompasses performance, film photography, drawing and sculpture. Much of his work includes collaborations with members of the public as well as other artists, writers and musicians. From 2010-2012, he was artist-in-residence during the construction of the Olympic Park in London.
Nabihah Iqbal has previously been commissioned to compose music for the Turner Prize, collaborated with Wolfgang Tillmans as part of his Tate Modern exhibition and was recently involved in a group performance at the Barbican as part of its major Basquiat retrospective. Earlier this year Iqbal was guest director of the Brighton Festival 2023.
Iqbal will appear as a guest on Factory International’s Dream Space podcast on October 6.
