A one-of-a-kind artwork installation designed to celebrate the strength of Hunter women will be shown at Wallsend Library, before being dispersed to homes across Newcastle East.
Timeless Textiles gallery's installation, Circles of Strength, was exhibited on International Women's Day.
It comprises 121 textile artworks, which complement its partner project Stories of Strength, a series of filmed interviews with 121 people in Newcastle East about what they had learned about themselves during COVID-19.
Gallery director Anne Kempton said 121 people from the gallery's Wednesday Makers Group and across the country were randomly allocated a video and asked to interpret it to create a work using fibre and textile art techniques.
Group coordinator Wilma Simmons said even though the artists didn't know the interviewees, they were able to empathise with their experiences and incorporate these into their work.
"Some were literal and some were abstract," Ms Simmons said. "You'd see some that were really happy and used bright colours, while others were more subdued, it just depended on the artist and their own preferred techniques and interpretations."
Ms Kempton said the gallery's year began and ended with International Women's Day, when it organised a community or social justice project.
"Every year we do something that supports women who have had difficulties in their lives," she said. "This year we want to celebrate the strength we have as women, to celebrate and build and acknowledge our strengths."
Ms Simmons said the installation will be hung in Wallsend Library. She said most artists wanted to gift their work to the interviewee they watched.
