Jenna Burchell is a project-based South African artist who creates alternative archives that fuse digital and natural elements to preserve stories and memories. Her interactive works invite audiences to engage with complex, often overlooked narratives, whether everyday or historical. 

Projects like Songsmith and Heartbreak Pots exemplify her approach to blending technology and storytelling in the service of history, place, and connection.

Guided by relational and stochastic processes, Jenna collaborates with the materials, landscapes, and people she encounters. These interactions allow her works to grow organically, embedding layers of meaning and memory into each piece. The results are sculptural sound objects and large-scale interactive environments — vessels, archives, and libraries that acknowledge, preserve, and share layered stories. 

Sound is a recurring element in Jenna’s work, with audiences being invited into narratives through touch and interactive technology. Recurring themes such as fracture and repair weave in and out of her work.

* Jenna Burchell was our guest artist for 2024

jennaburchell.com | @jennaburchell