22/07/2026
Head along to Jen Alexandra's exhibition at The National before it closes at 4pm on Saturday (25 July)
Tie nine, to my design
Jen Alexandra
03 Jul – 25 Jul 2026
Jen Alexandra presents her solo exhibition, Tie nine, to my design – the final work in a series of nine, taking the form of a nine-knot spell. Bronzed lavender, copper, glass and scent act as channels for intention that hold the project’s accumulated stories in a single charged space.
Jen Alexandra’s practice combines sculpture, installation and performance to explore the artists role as querent, and the relationships between human and non-human. She proposes that art can connect with other realms of experience, interpret visions, or serve as a mode of knowledge itself. Objects, floating ontologically as artefacts and channels for intention, act as transitional objects between places. For Alexandra, folklore, nature-based worship and seasonal lore are ways to understand notions of spirit through studio-focused intuitive technologies approaching the unseen and spiritual as both a platform and tool for expanding understanding of creative practice and acts of devotion.
Tie nine, to my design was developed for doctoral thesis, A Spell for Making or Making for a Spell, at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, University of Canterbury. The thesis asks how the application of intuitive technologies in studio practice can focus and expand the creative act as devoted disruption.
Exhibition developed with support from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, University of Canterbury
