Swansea College of Art student selected for prestigious Discerning Eye exhibition

5 November 2026

A disabled artist who rebuilt her creative career through textiles after spending 12 years in the performing arts has been selected to exhibit her work at one of the UK’s most prestigious art exhibitions.

Tammy Davies, a student on the MA Textiles - Contemporary Dialogues programme at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Swansea College of Art has had her artwork Threads selected for this year’s Discerning Eye exhibition at London’s Mall Galleries.

Chosen from thousands of submissions from across the UK, the exhibition showcases work by both emerging and established artists and is regarded as one of the country’s most respected platforms for contemporary art.

Inspired by an image of textile waste in a dump in Ghana, Threads explores sustainability, consumption and the environmental impact of the fashion industry. The piece was created entirely from reclaimed materials, including thread collected from a studio floor, stained curtain lining and embroidery hoops sourced from a scrap store.

Tammy said: “Sustainability is of huge importance to me. The piece was created entirely from waste.

“I hope visitors see something intriguing and look me up to find out the message - that we can create and have something beautiful without it costing the Earth.”

The achievement marks an important milestone in Tammy’s creative journey. Tammy lives with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), a connective tissue disorder that causes chronic pain, fatigue and joint instability. After spending 12 years in the performing arts industry, she turned to textiles when the condition meant she could no longer perform, finding a new outlet for her creativity through art and design.

Having completed a Fashion Design degree at Coleg Sir Gâr’s Carmarthen School of Art, she recently began postgraduate study at Swansea College of Art, where she is specialising in textiles. Through her MA studies, she is exploring themes of sustainability, identity and disability, while examining what it means to be a feminist, artist and designer in a rapidly changing world.

Reflecting on the experiences that have shaped her as an artist, Tammy said:

“My disability is part of me - I was born with it. It has taken me a long time to realise that if I accept who I am and listen to my body, I can still achieve goals and be creative.”

Now studying on the Contemporary Dialogues programme, Tammy is deepening her understanding of sustainable textile practices and hopes to develop techniques that allow damaged and discarded textiles to be repaired, repurposed and transformed into wearable garments.

Through her work, she hopes to demonstrate how creativity can play a role in making the fashion industry more sustainable, while challenging perceptions around waste, value and consumption.