Nicola Ellis
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Exercise in knowing exhibition, HOME
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Nicola Ellis: Exercises in knowing<br> HOME, Manchester <br> Three new bodies of work that explore how we relate to industry, materials, and labour. <br><br> For this exhibition, Exercises in Knowing, Nicola Ellis has created three new bodies of work that extend her ongoing collaboration with the steel enclosure manufacturer Ritherdon & Co in Darwen, Lancashire. In it, Ellis explores how we relate to industry, materials, and labour, highlighting the role of sensory and tacit knowledge in these relationships, as well as the ways such knowledge is communicated. <br><br> Ellis’ work is often created in response to contexts outside of traditional art environments, using discarded or overlooked materials, substances or subjects within industrial or scientific contexts. By combining sculpted, found and digitally manipulated materials, she creates forms that retain the traces of their origins exploring their ecologies and legacies. <br><br> Subject To Use: Subject To Use is a series of sculptures made from plaster of Paris featuring fabricators carrying out gestures or actions performed daily. Worked into plinths, the gestured limbs coordinate to apply personal protective equipment, drive a forklift, or lift steel components. These works become studies of hands interacting with tools or machines, displaying the dexterity and control, immortalised into plaster evoking classical sculpture, and statue. <br><br> Arc The video work Arc is a split screen work shot from nine angles around the welding booth at Ritherdon using an array of digital cameras. Within the heat of the confined space and the intense UV light, the routine, technical skills and knowledge accumulated by the fabricators are apparent, accompanied by sounds from the booth and live radio vibrations. <br><br> Retro Activity Series: Residual architecture This is a series of large works suspended throughout the space, flat, almost paper-like sheets of steel with punched out voids which act as an angular oculus through which to view the other works in the exhibition. Reclaimed recyclable waste materials from the Ritherdon manufacturing line – they are the skeletal remains of steel sheets used to produce casing for EV street chargers and similar steel enclosures which house the street-side electrical units that power outdoor street lighting, traffic lights, smart motorways and more. <br><br> The handling of tools—acquired not through manuals but over years of observation, practice, and repetition—is a source of familial connection for Ellis. This work expresses a deep reverence for skills usually hidden behind factory walls and now - often assumed to be automated. Over the last 30 years, the UK’s manufacturing sector has declined, and the economy has shifted toward services, this reflects a structural shift rather than a contraction of output, as services have expanded much more rapidly than manufacturing has shrunk. This exhibition celebrates the communities still centred around manufacturing and manual making, highlights our symbiotic relationship with materials and tools, and emphasises the value of doing things by hand—even within a digitally organised system—reminding us that people remain central to creating the infrastructure that surrounds us. <br><br> Nicola Ellis: Exercises in knowing is curated by Clarissa Corfe<br> Senior Gallery Technician: Kieran Leach<br> Visual Art Coordinator: Claire McIntyre<br> Film editing assistance: Peter Simpkins<br> 3D scanning services: Jeffrey Knopf<br> Invaluable ad-hock studio assistance: Ben Lunt, Will Marshall and Richard Dean Hughes<br> With thanks to the National Festival of Making's Art in Manufacturing initiative, for the Introduction to Ritherdon & Co Ltd in 2018<br> As always, many thanks to everyone at Ritherdon & Co Ltd for their continued interest in my work, and willingness to facilitate it on their factory site

 

Matt<br /> Chemically hardened plaster and various residues from the Ritherdon factory context<br /> 170cm × 70cm × 1105cm<br /> 2026<br /> Image credit: @michaelpollardphotography<br /> <br>Matt is one of five sculptures in Subject to Use, a series of plaster works in which fabricators perform the everyday gestures of their labour. Emerging from plinth-like forms, these studies of hands and arms interacting with tools, materials and machines capture dexterity, coordination and control — immortalised in plaster in a manner that evokes classical sculpture and statuary.<br /> <br /> Each sculpture began as a 3D scan made on the Ritherdon factory floor. The lighting conditions — designed for manufacturing rather than digital capture — introduced distortions and glitches into the scans. These artefacts were retained as the files were translated into 3D prints and then cast in plaster. Through each stage of translation, slippages and material irregularities accumulated, embedding the conditions of production into the final works.<br /> <br /> The sculptures are further saturated with liquids sourced directly from the factory environment. In Matt, arms poised to connect a pressurised airline to a tool are coated in a solution containing metal grindings dredged from the grind shop extractor. Across the wider series: Nic, operating a pump truck handle, is steeped in pink industrial soap; Daniel, lifting a steel component, is infused with pine disinfectant; Jan, captured putting on ear defenders, is treated with hydraulic oil, rust water and steel residue; Pete, operating a forklift truck, carries traces of hydraulic fluid and general factory grime.<br /> <br /> Each work becomes both representation and material record — holding within it the physical and chemical atmosphere of the place from which it came.

Matt<br> Chemically hardened plaster and various residues from the Ritherdon factory context<br> 170cm × 70cm × 1105cm<br> 2026<br> Image credit: @michaelpollardphotography<br>

Selected Portfolio
Exercise in knowing exhibition, HOME
Bronzes
Nicola Ellis and Ritherdon & Co Ltd: No gaps in the line exhibition
Plaster and white casts
Twelve Thousand Exhibition
Ghost pigs
Metal extraction – Caro steel
Henry Moore Artist Research Fellowship 2022-23
Weld metal sculptures
Powdered jigs and components
Retroactivity series
11 by 4003 by 683 by 9006
Better Factory knowledge transfer project MINIROBOFAB
Peripheral memories – La Rete
Semi-automatic machine self-portraits
5 Panels in Ritherdon Mix Grey
Work from home – drawings and paintings
Incidental Rendition audio work
Small powder coated works
Pole Jam
R18E on white day (video)
Contaminated Panels
Chemistry and magic straight down the line- Art in Manufacturing residency
Custom Folds
An Orange Inclination and Critical Mass
Leggy
You’re barred
Some, any, much, a lot of, a little, a few
© 2026 Nicola Ellis