Tie One, The Spell's Begun is an enthralling new sculptural installation by Ōtautahi artist Jen Alexandra, casting a space for darkened contemplation. A smokey veil, tied ribbons and cords, bronze, bows, rose scent, altars and fairy doors inspired by the gallery architecture combine to make a charged atmosphere. Jen is interested in nature-based worship and folklore as a way to understand ‘notions of spirit’ through intuitive technologies – and in this project, the ritual objects of elusive love.
Artists talk opening event. 2pm Saturday 22nd June
Join Jen Alexandra and Professor Carl Mika in conversation followed by refreshments. Jen will introduce the show and Carl will discuss Māori notions of āhua (form) and Hinengaro (mind/perception).
Professor Carl Mika
I am Maori of the Tuhourangi iwi and a professor in Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury, specialising in Māori and Indigenous philosophy, with a particular focus on its revitalisation within a colonised reality. Committed to investigating indigenous notions of holism, I wrote Indigenous Education and the Metaphysics of Presence (2017, Routledge), along with several articles and chapters, on the issue of colonisation and reductionism. I am currently working on the Maori concepts of nothingness and darkness in response to an Enlightenment focus on clarity and am speculating on how they can form the backdrop of academic expression. I am also contributing to philosophical discussions arising around matauranga Maori and science.
Jen Alexandra
Jen Alexandra’s practice combines sculpture, installation and performance to explore the position of the artist as querent, and real and imagined relationships between people, objects, materials and space. It proposes that art can be a way to connect with other realms of experience, interpret a vision – or the idea of a vision – or be a mode of knowledge in itself. Objects, ontologically floating as artefacts and channels for intention, are offered as transitional objects between one place and another.
Jen lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch where she completed an MFA at the University of Canterbury in 2018. Her work has been included in the Arte Laguna Prize (Venice) in 2017, and the Royal Academy of Arts (London) Summer Exhibition 2020. She participated in the 2019 Taitung County Artists Exchange Programme in Taiwan, contributed to the Speaking Surfaces project at ST PAUL St Gallery in 2020, and was an Asia New Zealand Arts Practitioner Fund grant recipient in 2023. Recent projects include, The Veil is Thin, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū 2021/22, and Sisterly at The Dowse Museum 2023. Jen is the Olivia Spencer Bower Awardee for 2024.
jen alexandra. photo: Sarah Rowlands
