Second Flight

For those who missed the recent exhibition of Cecily Grace’s exhibition, Wetlanders, there is to be another showing of the works. As visits to the Wetlands were somewhat restricted owing to Covid regulations, it has been decided to re-hang the works as Second Flight, at the Timeless Textile Gallery in Hunter St Newcastle. Second Flight will be showing from 6 – 24^thDecember.

Second Flight follows Grace’s exploration of the birdlife on her urban rooftop in a successful exhibition – The Waiting Bird and other Rooftop Visitors – at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery last year. This exhibition focuses on the diverse birds found in the Shortland and Ash Island wetland sand the hunter Valley.

Featured are perching birds and precariously balancing nests on tangled and gnarly tree limbs. Within these tangles, various birds bathe, mate and eat, forming dramatic and artistic shapes.

While based on photography, Grace’s work is not nature photography. She has manipulated her photographs to highlight the shapes, tones and textures of birds in their habitats.

The photographs have been inkjet printed on cotton fabric or printed with pigment inks on cotton fibre paper. The resulting fabric pictures have been hand-stitched to emphasise the features and movements of the birds.