Exposed caught up with Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, founder of Work-Leisure – an exhibition celebrating the unsung creativity of workers across the UK, which has spent the last year exploring Sheffield’s industrial landscapes. From scissor factories to concrete workshops, the project brings together objects crafted during downtime on sites, exploring the traditional divide between work and play.
Work-Leisure explores the relationship between work and free time. What inspired you to investigate this theme?
As a designer and maker, I’m personally interested in how play informs my work. Working outside of supply and demand allows for creative expression, material experimentation and skill development through projects that fall beyond economic logic.
The practice of making whimsical objects using workplace skills and materials dates back to an unknown time. At some point, I encountered the tradition of ‘frigging’, where glassworkers would use leftover molten glass in the furnace at the end of the workday to create small objects to gift or trade with fellow workers. Reflecting on the heritage of making in the UK, I became curious to see how this tradition has translated into the contemporary industrial landscape.
How did you locate the different objects to feature?
The project involves a lot of walking, door knocking and word of mouth. The process includes identifying industrial sites and spending a number of days meeting workers in their workplaces.
The question “Do you make things for fun at work?” is clearly understood, and the responses vary from “No, we just finish up and go home”, or “Yes, well, I like to mess about with this and that” to “No, but I know who does.” That’s how we ended up with these objects.
Can you tell us about some of the people or communities you worked with?
One of the things I enjoy about the project is that it’s full of chance encounters. I meet people of different cultural backgrounds, industries, interests and temperament. From traditional industries like third-generation blacksmith Richard Lewis and scissor maker Grace Horne, to newer ones like CNC fabricators Chop Shop and concrete countertop producers Conplex. To share these insights and stories, we’ve made a publication with Everyday Press that features interviews and photographs of the makers and their work.
Sheffield is rich with making, and the people and communities I’ve met have been very receptive to the project. We’re hoping to gather many of the makers at the exhibition opening.
Were there any unexpected insights or discoveries that emerged during the making of the exhibition?
I don’t know where to start – the whole project is based on discoveries and the unexpected. What’s interesting is that the objects we’ve found are often gifted or traded with other workers. You meet someone and they send you across the city to visit someone who likes to ‘mess about making things at work’. That person shows you a gem and tells you the background story.
There’s a very strong social element, often with no real desire to make things public. I, alongside my collaborator Matthew Harle, am really a facilitator, investigator and producer in this process. The real skill and creativity lie with the makers.
How do you hope audiences engage with the pieces in Work-Leisure?
We hope to show the beauty, skills and history of these objects to the wider public through the exhibition and publication – to bring attention to the making that shapes our material world and the real-life stories and characters that make it happen.
The website www.work-leisure.uk is a growing archive that expands as the project moves from one city to another, discovering things along the way. We’ve also started an Instagram account, @work_leisure_uk, which provides updates as the project develops.
Work-Leisure is at Yorkshire Artspace, 21 Brown Street, until 12 April. More info available at artspace.org.uk.
