Hidden Voices_The Sleeping Bag Project

Linked to the Bradford Innchurches winter shelter which provides accommodation and help for those without homes, The Sleeping Bag Project reclaimed sleeping bags left behind at Leeds Music Festival, laundered them, invested them with hand crafted care and then gifted them to those in need of warmth and shelter. Hidden Voices: The Sleeping Bag Project was presented at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate International Centre in 2012 and set up in an expansive concrete space illuminated by fluorescent lights. On entering the space, the sound and smell of cloth being machine-washed confronted the audience. During the course of the exhibition, sleeping bags that originally reeked of the traces of sweat, urine, foodstuffs and the smoke at Leeds music festival site started to smell freshly of washing powder. Visitors became aware of piles of textiles on tables at craft zones dotted around the space where hands-on textile craft-making was taking place. The post-music festival debris sprawled across one side of the gallery, waves of sleeping bags drying on the other and sleeping bags rolled up and stored on wooden shelves after washing: all could imbue the audience with contrasting emotions including repulsion or attraction. It is difficult to assess fully the effectiveness of this exhibition. Visitors were inclined to view the installations with a lingering eye, listen to buskers, sit on camping seats to view the PowerPoints or join in crafting interventions involving sleeping bags. Some stayed to discuss the circumstances of the project and wanted to find out how they could develop it in their own communities. Others returned later before transporting the cleaned and crafted sleeping bags through the streets of Harrogate to the local homeless shelter.