Alexis Maxwell
Alexis has been working in-residence at In-Situ to create Memory Fabric; a sci-fi inspired installation based on an imagined textile of the future that holds the memories of a place and its people. It is a co-commission between In-Situ and British Textiles Biennial, exhibited at 3B Systems in Nelson in October 2025 as part of the BTB festival programme.
Alexis uses a blend of sound, projection and animation to investigate how communities shape the stories of the places they inhabit, and how looking at the past and present can inspire speculative futures that celebrate what already exists.
This work combines textile installation using upcycled materials and builds on fabric already present in the space from previous collaborative projects. This is layered with animated projections and sound recordings developed out of sessions with Anything here, Positive Voices and the TIN Collective. It has been created in collaboration with artist Emma Shaw-Peake and Faith Bebbington. The soundscape is by Andrew Hillock and Matthieu Wibaux.
Alexis Maxwell, Memory Fabric, In-Situ and British Textiles Biennial, 2025
Dana is a socially engaged artist working at the intersection of installation, performance, and social design, whose practice challenges minority exclusion and environmental injustice.
Dana is back in-residence in Nelson for the third time, to develop Taste of Transformation, continuing previous residencies exploring food politics. She is supporting local residents, growers, allotments, young people and food producers to co-create 'Food Nelson'; a hands-on, creative programme that will bring This is Nelson's Food Manifesto to life.
Taste of Transformation highlights the importance of food justice and collective action, turning food politics from theory into lived experience, one meal, one conversation, and one action at a time.
Taste of Transformation is a co-commission with Super Slow Way for This is Nelson.
Slow Feast, Nelson 2024 with Super Slow Way and This is Nelson, Image: Diane Muldowney
Aliyah Hussain
Hussain works across ceramics, sound and collage, drawing on themes found in feminist science fiction and speculative storytelling. She makes expressive sculptural objects that can be reconfigured and remixed for different spaces.
Aliyah has created a window artwork for This is Nelson, relating to recent wide-reaching explorations we have been doing as community around climate, inequality, nature and hope.
Developing in dialogue with our Thinking Out Loud programme, Aliyah has responded to these collective conversations with “How do we listen?”, a multi-layered illustration and text work that you can see in the windows of the old fishmongers on Scotland Road.
Alina Akbar
Alina is working as artist-in-residence on the Hillo Hub programme. Hillo Hub provides weekly social, active, growing and wellbeing activities for women experiencing chronic pain, mental health difficulties, social isolation and language barriers.
Alina is working with the women to create a film that documents their journey, including evening walks, learning to ride bikes and growing and preparing food and herbal remedies.
'Hillo' means 'movement' in Urdu
Sophie Mahon
Sophie Mahon is the current artist-in-residence with In-Situ at Harwes Farm in Colne. Sophie is a multi-disciplinary artist/ practitioner who has also worked with In-Situ as a Producer and on our young people's programmes.
Here for the first time, she is exploring the joys and challenges of working creatively in a wild site, and with time and space for open-ended exploration without a fixed outcome in mind. She is focusing on the relationship to the land, to the seasons and with the farm’s owner, Gill.
The wildness and unpredictability of the site have determined the development of this work, from chosen materials to practical limitations dictating and shaping initial experimentations.
Sophie says she has been doing the most ‘out there’ work of her practice to date, making responsive sound drawing, and exploring digital projections in the woodland. She has also been exploring new processes, from microscopic filmmaking to natural printing methods, making emblems that convey a respect for the woodland. “Time in the woodland has been magical. I’m thinking about how to articulate what its like to be there - this ancient woodland; it’s spirituality, sacred, the things that will be there after we’ve gone. Interconnected things, soil habitats, micro-habitats. Things that are bigger than us.” Another part of this residency is connecting with other parts of In-Situ’s programme. A natural synergy has been between Sophie, Harwes and Hillo Hub, a female-led physical activity programme for South Asian women in Nelson to support physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. The group has spent time with Sophie at the farm connecting with the natural environment and each other and taking time out of everyday life. “What is it about women coming together outdoors? Everyone’s equal, it’s a common ground. It’s connecting. It enables.” - Zoya Bhatti During her residency, Sophie is also supporting a dialogue between In-Situ and Harwes Farm CIC owner, Gill, about developing a longer-term partnership in which the farm explores ways of working with artists on-site, and In-Situ is able to take community groups and programmes into a rural setting.
Andy Abbott
Our longest running artist in-residence to date, Andy Abbott is guest-curating Nelson Re-imagined, an artist-research programme within This is Nelson. Andy has invited artists to Nelson to research possibility and local networks, discover opportunities and to leave us with provocations to follow up in the wider programme. Read more on these artist research residencies, with Dana Olarescu, Sam Jones, Michael Powell, Kristina Borg, Rob St John and Red Plenty Games.
Alongside these Andy has hosted a series of talks bringing in artists leading exemplary socially engaged projects, including Owen Griffiths, Kathrin Bohm, bringing them in dialogue with local experts in communities, culture and place.
In addition, Andy has continued his longterm VR investigation into the Future of Work in Pendle, working with students at Nelson and Colne College as part of This is Nelson.
Nazia Sultana
Nelson-based artist Nazia Sultana is artist in residence exploring her faith and connection to nature. Throughout the summer she has been working in our project space and out and about with artist-mentors exploring ceramics as a new part of her practice.
She has learnt how to construct large ceramic 'prayer balls', imprinted with natural materials, and is hosting workshops with a group of ten local women to do the same. These mindfully created objects of contemplation will be glazed and fired and form part of an immersive group performance and profession of faith in a cave in nearby moorland.
Ellie Barrett and Nora (2 yrs)
Ellie Barrett and her pre-school daughter, Nora, worked in-residence in Brierfield to introduce creative play between parents and their toddlers at local play groups. Working in our project space, Ellie and Nora worked and played experimentally with everyday materials that can be bought at the supermarket, creating 'bundles' (pictured) and also a toolkit for sculptural creative play.
Image: Ellie Barrett