What happens to a community when industry dissipates? Who tells the stories of working-class life and who listens?
Many Hands: Class, Community and the Changing Face of Industry is a bold new exhibition that brings together the voices of working-class artists to explore how shifts in industry, migration, and land continue to shape identity, tradition, and belonging.
The exhibition weaves together historic and contemporary photography to examine the lived experience of class not just as an economic category, but as something felt in the clothes we wear, the meals we make, the words we use, and the ways we carry our past.
It is co-curated by Anna Turzynski and Natalie Kolowiecki, from the Gallery team at Sunny Bank Mills, and Seren Metcalfe and Chanelle Windas from Working Class Creatives (CIC),
Sunny Banks Mills’ Arts Director Anna Turzynski said: “This is the first major photography exhibition held at the Gallery and the quality of the work on show is phenomenal.
“We are so honoured to host such exceptional talent alongside archival images from the Mills’ collection. What I love most is the immersive mix of photography, installation and film that invites you to engage, share and be inspired.”
Natalie Kolowiecki added: “The work in Many Hands spans from the 70s to the present, documenting the experiences of communities in Scotland, the North East, the West Country, the Midlands and Bradford.
“Many of the artists have documented the daily lives of their friends, families and neighbours, consequentially creating an invaluable record of the lives of industrial workers, including many from small communities of Polish, Irish, Caribbean and South Asian people. Others have actively created work to highlight the effects of the gig economy, housing shortages and the cost-of-living crisis.
“Despite the differences in these photographers’ practices, the work on display in this exhibition tells a collective story of connection, solidarity, joy, resilience, and friendship.”
Seren Metcalfe and Chanelle Windas from Working Class Creatives (CIC) said: “Representing artists from different generations was super important for us, to create a space to critically reflect on the lived realities and resistances of working class communities during and after deindustrialisation.
“We are aware of the growing critique that working class life must not only be framed through the lens of loss and hardship. That we need to move past documenting Working Class life in a voyeuristic sense. That we should celebrate our roots and our blooms, and this exhibition responds to that, showcasing lives lived with immense creativity and community whilst refusing to look away from the structures that shaped, and continue to shape, these communities.”
Featuring work by acclaimed and emerging artists including Amber Brown, Czesław Siegieda, Ian Beesley, Joanne Coates, Kirsty Mackay, Kelly O’Brien in collaboration with Devon Osborne, Nudrat Afza, Sean O’Connell in collaboration with Flornicate and Victor Wedderburn, the exhibition spans generations and geographies, building a powerful, interwoven portrait of life in working-class communities across the UK.
Exhibiting artist Kelly O’Brien said: “Making this work was a reckoning with my own classed history through my family archive, working with photos where smiles mask exhaustion and labour lingers just out of sight. Reworking and reimagining these photographs became a way to make visible what was overlooked: the everyday graft of working-class women. Making this work wasn’t just about nostalgia, it was a form of intergenerational resistance, a way to honour the women who raised and shaped me.”
Many Hands is open in the Gallery, Sandsgate Building, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, LS28 5UJ, Tuesday- Sunday 10am-4pm until 5 October. Closed on Mondays. Free entry.
For more information on Many Hands at Sunny Bank Mills, visit the website.
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