PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Jenna Burchell was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1985. Her interactive installations, as well as sculptural and performance works, investigate the role played by technology in mediating diasporic relationships. The artist completed a BAFA at the University of Pretoria in 2007. She was a recipient of the Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award (2011), Arteles Art Residency in Finland (2012), and is represented in the UNISA art collection along with other private and corporate collections. Her work has been seen at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Aardklop Arts Festival, including museums (Oliewenhuis, Museum Africa), institutions (UNISA Art Gallery, Michaelis Art Gallery), commercial spaces (Fried Contemporary, KZNSA Gallery), and the Smithsonian in Washington.
Burchell also works as an independent creative industry consultant and arts project manager, a consequence of being awarded the Spier Contemporary Arts Curatorial Internship in 2009. This dual career has defined the artist’s collaborative approach, developing interdisciplinary dialogues between artist, local communities and industry specialists. She lives and works in the Johannesburg area.
Marble Cement
Variable size
2012
© Abound Photography
If these walls could talk
If These Walls Could Talk is a sculptural installation that investigates how to capture and preserve the impermanence of an individual. Each mouth sculpture captures a fragmented syllable of a sentence holding personal significance to the sitter. Small nuances of habitual gestures capture a personality, its thought process, the symbolic essence of an individual. The mouth, presented like a relic or scientific specimen, is preserved for interpretation or misinterpretation for those who follow the fluid design of the speech pattern.
This artwork is my personal response to conversations between myself and the artist Audrey Anderson, whilst sharing a studio in 2011.
