CALLY TRENCH

Metamorphosis (2020-23)

Cally Trench's homepage

Cally Trench's drawings


Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) II

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis (Bird) II (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
30 x 24 cm

These drawings show hands (and feet) from which feathers are sprouting. The hands and feet are not yet wings, but can never go back to being hands and feet. Ovid's Metamorphoses (written about 2000 years ago in Latin) is a collection of stories in which human beings are transformed into trees, animals and birds, sometimes against their will but sometimes to escape a worse fate at the hands of the gods. What does it feel like to be in the process of that transformation? To be halfway between the person that you are ceasing to be and the bird that you are becoming? There is the promise of flight, freedom, an escape to the air, but there is the horrendous loss of human identity and the inevitable separation from all the people that you love.

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) III

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) III (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 40 x 30 cm

The viewer is placed in the position of the artist, so that the transformation can be seen as happening to their own hands. In the drawings, the hands are life size, and are drawn from life - the artist's own ageing hands - in pen and ink on watercolour paper. One influence is Victorian scientific textbook illustrations, giving the drawings an air of old-fashioned scientific accuracy.

Metamorphosis: Writings about Cally Trench's drawings by Mary Yacoob, Annie Rapstoff, and Guy Tarrant.

"... the wonderful, and slightly sinister, feathered feet and hands, drawn in such detail, by the inimitable Cally Trench - her literal interpretation of human-avian metamorphosis in action." Chris Woodcock in Metamorphosis - the art of manipulation coupled with imagination (Spencer House Gallery blog, 18/7/22)
"You manage to make creepy and attractive coexist on the same plane." Sophie Loss

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) VI

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) VI (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 36 x 46 cm

Metamorphosis (Bird) III, VI and IX were included in Unprecedented at Ovada, Oxford in 2021.
A selection of the Metamorphosis drawings were shown at the Spencer House Gallery, Tetbury, in Breathing Space (May-June 2022), and more were shown in Metamorphosis (July-August 2022), when Cally was a featured artist.
Metamorphosis (Duck) was featured in Haus A Rest's Issue 28 on the theme of Metamorphosis in July 2022 (on Instagram and their website).
Seven of the drawings were shown in Exploring Inside The Box, an exhibition with Tineke Bruijnzeels at Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot, in September-November 2022: Metamorphosis (Bird) X, Metamorphosis (Bird) I, Metamorphosis (Duck), Metamorphosis (Kite), Metamorphosis (Goose), Metamorphosis (Woodpecker), and Assisted Flight II.
Nine of the drawings were shown in In The Likeness of Birds, an exhibition with Annie Rapstoff and Monika Tobel at The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford, July 2023: Metamorphosis (Bird) II, Metamorphosis (Magpie), Metamorphosis (Owl), Metamorphosis (Coot), Metamorphosis (Self-Portrait), Metamorphosis in Stages, Metamorphosis (Bird) VIII, Metamorphosis (Puffin), and Metamorphosis (Bird) V.
Metamorphosis (Duck) and Transformation (Black Poplar) were shown in Excappare, St Andrews Mews, Hastings, curated by Charlotte CHW.

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) X

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) X (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour on watercolour paper
40 x 30 cm
Private collection

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) IX

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) IX (2020)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 53 x 76 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Coot)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Coot) (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 57 x 57 cm
Private collection

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Duck)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Duck) (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour on watercolour paper
Each drawing 40 x 30 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Puffin)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Puffin) (2023)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 30 x 40 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis in Stages Cally Trench: Metamorphosis in Stages Cally Trench: Metamorphosis in Stages

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis in Stages (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper,
each drawing 31 x 21 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) VII

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) VII (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour
on watercolour paper, 23.5 x 32.5 cm
Private collection

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Magpie)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Magpie) (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
53 x 76 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Goose)

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis (Goose) (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
40 x 30 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Woodpecker)

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis (Woodpecker) (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
32 x 24 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Owl)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Owl) (2022)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
32 x 32.5 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Kite)

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Kite) (2022)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 53 x 76 cm
Pivate collection

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) I

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) I (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
30 x 24 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) IV

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) IV (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour
on watercolour paper, 30 x 40 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) V

Cally Trench, Metamorphosis (Bird) V (2020)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper, 40 x 40 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis (Bird) VIII

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis (Bird) VIII (2021)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
41.5 x 28 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis: Assisted Flight I

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis: Assisted Flight I (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour
on watercolour paper
30 x 24 cm

Cally Trench: Metamorphosis: Assisted Flight II

Cally Trench
Metamorphosis: Assisted Flight II (2021)
Pen and ink and watercolour
on watercolour paper
40 x 30 cm

Cally Trench: Transformation (Black Poplar)

Cally Trench
Transformation (Black Poplar) (2023)
Pen and ink on watercolour paper
53 x 76 cm

Cally Trench's homepage