Solo Exhibition by Christina Drennan Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny September 2025 – January 2026

What Can You See explored the significance of materials that move through daily life unnoticed. Presented at the Watergate Theatre from September 2025 to January 2026, the exhibition brought together a series of works shaped through an intuitive, process led engagement with fibre, texture, and material memory.

Working with fragments gathered from projects, stray threads, fallen wool, remnants from workshops, and discarded cloth, Christina reframed these overlooked elements as sites of potential.

Through layered surfaces, subtle mark making, and a sensitivity to colour and form, the works invited viewers to consider how the smallest materials can hold presence, history, and meaning.

Rather than focusing on technique, the exhibition centred on transformation: how materials shift when removed from their functional roles and placed within a contemplative, fine art context. Each piece became a study in attention, an invitation to look closely, to recognise value in what is usually unseen, and to consider the narratives embedded within the everyday.

What Can You See encouraged visitors to reflect on perception itself: what we notice, what we overlook, and how the act of looking can reveal new layers of understanding.

Christina’s work weaves together repurposed fabrics, mindful mark making, and found remnants drawn from daily life to challenge the culture of over consumption. Through texture, colour, and form, Christina hopes you’ll discover something unexpected, something that speaks to the potential of everyday materials to hold meaning, to shift perspective, and to spark your own interpretation.

                                                                            “Underestimated”

Solo Exhibition by Textile Artist / Mixed Media Artist Christina Drennan Index Gallery, Central Library, Waterford Part of the WELL Festival of Arts and Wellbeing 2025

Underestimated was presented at the Index Gallery, Central Library, Waterford as part of the WELL Festival of Arts and Wellbeing 2025. The exhibition ran from Thursday, 6 February to Friday, 27 February 2025, with an official launch on Saturday, 8 February at 2.30pm. Everyone was welcome.

The WELL Festival celebrates the deep connection between creativity and wellness, and my work aligned closely with this philosophy. Through weaving, hand‑stitching, and embroidery, I explored slow, meditative processes that encourage mindfulness, patience, and presence. These traditional craft techniques offered moments of reflection and emotional grounding, inviting visitors to engage with the therapeutic nature of handcraft and the quiet stories held within everyday materials.

Underestimated was a deeply personal exhibition – a reflection of my belief that nothing, whether materials, people, or places, should ever be dismissed or overlooked. The collection consisted of 51 textile pieces created organically and intuitively, using circular materials, natural fibres, and repurposed textiles chosen for their texture, history, and often‑ignored potential.

Rich Irish wools, soft mohair, jute, and cotton fabrics were woven together, many on an Irish peg loom I designed and built to honour the ancient tradition of peg‑loom weaving. Techniques such as free‑motion embroidery, decorative stitching, and layered fibres brought each piece to life, blending contemporary innovation with time‑honoured craft.

Throughout the exhibition, I explored the beauty found in discarded elements, waste threads, loose wool from woven hangings, and fabric remnants gathered from workshops. These overlooked fragments were transformed into intricate works of art, becoming metaphors for the unseen and underestimated aspects of life. Just like these fibres, people and places often carry quiet depth, value, and untold stories waiting to be rediscovered.

Hosting the exhibition at the Central Library held special meaning. Libraries, much like textile work, are places where knowledge, stories, and histories are preserved, shared, and reimagined. The WELL Festival’s dedication to the connection between art and wellbeing echoed my own belief that creating with our hands is a mindful, restorative practice — an opportunity to slow down, reconnect with the past, and shape something new.

Visitors were invited to explore the collection and reflect on the underestimated: the threads, the forgotten, the overlooked, and the potential within us all.

The exhibition was hosted and presented by Waterford Libraries and the WELL Festival of Arts and Wellbeing 2025, with support from Europe Direct Waterford.