Textiles Exhibition

Shoddy is the name for new cloth created from woollen waste and recycled fabric. This original meaning is now largely unknown, and the word has come to mean of inferior quality, shabby, broken-down.

This is the starting point for a project led by and featuring disabled textile artists working with woollen yarns and fabrics, or recycled and reused textile materials. The project centred on an exhibition in Leeds from 7th – 16th April 2016, with further exhibitions in Batley and Leeds.

We are challenging any assumptions that our work, and our-selves, are inferior, broken-down, second-rate or badly made.

And this is, of course, against the current background of cuts to welfare benefits, a raft of massive cuts to public services, including social care services, that are disproportionately affecting disabled people, and a climate of demonising those who receive benefits or other support. “Shoddy” should perhaps be used to describe the government’s treatment of disabled people.