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Ellis Kay Morgan

She is a socially engaged arts practitioner and trainee art therapist based in Derby. Her practice centers on
textile processes, which provide a rich, nonverbal language to explore themes of mending, reclamation, and
reintegration. For her, textiles are an extension of the body and an essential facet of human life, rich with
material history and embedded with the stories of those who wear or use them.
Working primarily with reclaimed fabrics, she examines issues of class, gender, and social stratification.
Through the act of stitching together scraps and fragments, she reconstructs what has been discarded,
transforming it into something whole and meaningful.
As a woman with lived experience of homelessness and exploitation, her work is deeply personal and political.
Each piece she creates is an act of reclamation, a means of reclaiming parts of herself while challenging
societal power structures that devalue and dehumanize individuals based on their social identities.
Her art advocates for a world in which no human being is considered disposable. By engaging with textiles as
a medium of repair and storytelling, she seeks to highlight resilience, foster connection, and inspire
conversations around equity and humanity.

Ratgirl

Textile soft sculpture
100x100x110cm, 2024
Rat Girl embodies the notion of the relational self and the position of self in society as an underclass woman. I am drawn to materials that are often devalued
or deemed worthless. My raw materials include photocopier prints, my body, duct tape, fragments of self, fabric scraps, and the contents of my recycling bin.
Just as a rat builds a nest, I create with anything I can scavenge, connecting to narratives of resilience, adaptation, and survival. Ratgirl embodies internalized
beliefs around worth; challenging the wider social systems which devalue and dehumanize, rendering me less than human. Creating Ratgirl is a symbolic act
of reconstructing the self, in highlighting my dehumanization I reclaim my right to personhood.

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