Artist A & Artist B

The Surplus Badge

The Surplus Badge was developed in three stages: workshops with East Lancashire Guides, Brownies and Rainbows, a participatory picnic filmed on the lawn in front of Towneley Hall and the installation including the film and artworks, exhibited in Towneley’s Family Dining Room for the British Textiles Biennial.

The eight artworks made for the film and installation are constructed from an ex-MOD cargo parachute which has been cut down, screen printed and re-sewn, including two large scale tent-like dresses. Artist A & Artist B’s Dada-esque response to the fast fashion theme of this year’s Biennial provides an antidote to the built-in obsolescence of fashion, by re-purposing and re-imagining uses for the surplus fabric of the decommissioned parachute. 

This project was co-commissioned with The Super Slow Way.