Sue Reddish
Manchester, UK
Sue explores the intersection of material waste and urban space, creating urban abstract landscapes using repurposed commercial clothing waste—remnants of fast fashion, mass production, and consumer culture. These discarded materials become her palette for constructing textured, layered compositions that evoke the rhythms and structures of the city.
Sue combines paint, print and, prominently, hand stitch. Whilst abstract, the pieces are based on observation. Each begins with unravelling seams, cutting and reclaiming fabric—textiles that carry traces of wear, labour, and identity—personal and collective histories embedded in their fibres. Through stitching, layering, and paint, Sue references the skylines and built environments, acknowledging its fragility and impermanence. Sue is interested ultimately in our place in the world: where and what we call home and how the physical and changing nature of that impacts on us over time.
Sue’s practice is both a form of visual storytelling and material activism. It challenges the lifecycle of textiles and invites viewers to reconsider what we throw away—physically and metaphorically. In transforming waste into art, Sue explores the tension between consumption and decay, beauty and ruin, our environment and the fibres from which it is built.
Photographs: Richard Tymon