"Touch/Touched/Moved"
Textiles and woodblock printmaking, February-April 2022
Textile & woven woodblock print installation, February-April, 2022
Flaten Art Museum, Northfield, MN
Celebrating the traditional crafts of textiles and woodblock printmaking, this work is the result of repeating the same processes of carving, printing, ripping, and weaving over and over, until they open up a new experience beyond our everyday use of textiles. Challenging the audience to access a heightened sense of corporeality, I meditate upon Pennina Barnett’s words:
“to touch is always to be touched. And one never emerges intact from any encounter, for to be touched involves a capacity to be moved, ‘a power to be affected.’”
I welcome you to interact with this piece by touching and moving through it.
Watch the process of creating this piece!
"I <3 Being a Lesbian"
Zine, April 2022
Pamphlet zine written as a love letter to my lesbian community.
Originally written to connect my earlier zines, “Turns Out I Was A Lesbian All Along” and “so you “support survivors:)” but don’t hold their abusers accountable…" together.
Everything I know about how to be both kind and discerning, I learned from being a lesbian."
DOWNLOAD THIS ZINE FOR FREE: digital / printable (print double sided and fold into three sections)
"six reasons i love you!!!" Coloring Book Zine
Zine, February 2021
Mini coloring book style zine to be printed, folded, filled with compliments, and shared with someone you love<3
DOWNLOAD THIS ZINE FOR FREE: printable zine
“toothbrush party!”
Oil on canvas, December 2021
Oil on canvas, December 2021 (3 feet x 3 feet)
“Toothbrush Party!” is a celebration of the daily habit of brushing your teeth; an act that seems mundane, if not boring, when done on your own, but suddenly holds a new excitement when done with a person you love. The couple pictured references my partner, Grace, and I, while being just abstracted enough that other queer couples can see themselves in the painting. In the piece, a bathroom is transformed by imagined colors, patterns, and depth, to bring attention to the other-worldly joy that can exist in an activity that is supremely normal; I can think of nothing more special than waking up with a loved one and getting to brush your teeth side by side.
Self Portrait
Multi-layer woodblock relief, December 2021
Multi-layer woodblock relief, December 2021 (10x10 inches)
Textiles: Pillars of Community
Textile exhibition, December 2021
December 3rd-21st, 2021, Kelsey Theater Gallery
Exhibition Statement:
In conversation with the covert sewing circles used for lesbian community building in the 19th and 20th centuries, Alexa’s practice is primarily concerned with the discourse between social network formation and the necessity of craft as a practice of survival and beauty. Problematizing the notion that objects which are accessible and necessary must be strictly pragmatic, Alexa playfully reimagines everyday objects as conduits of optimism, reverently calling back to motifs of lesbian oral history. In a society where homoerotic desire is relegated to the private sphere, Alexa challenges the notion of “respectable queerness” by inviting her audience to interact with intimate objects of her everyday life, blurring the line between private and public. In a bold reclamation of textile craft, Alexa invites her audience to collapse their conceptions of “subject” and “object,” and the “inherent” versus the “performed.” Alexa invites us to consider: How can we find joy in the ordinary?
- Grace Cline, Alexa’s girlfriend
This exhibition features work created by Alexa Sorensen in an independent study with John Sauer. Quotes throughout the exhibit are from “Folds, Fragments, Surfaces: Towards a Poetics of Cloth” by Pennina Barnett.
“Scrap Collages #1-20”
Fabric scraps, machine sewing
“This is a space of fragments, a space of the incomplete. But this is not a lack or a failure. Why tie up loose ends?”
“Tapestry, Vest”
Yarn, woven and knitted
“If “soft” suggests an elastic surface… that yields to pressure, that is not a weakness, for an object that gives in is actually stronger than one that resists, because it also permits the opportunity to be oneself in a new way.”
“Table Runner, Jacket”
Cloth, quoted and embroidered
“Cloth addresses the most intimate of senses: touch… while it is possible to see without being seen… to touch is always to be touched. And one never emerges intact from any encounter, for to be touched involves a capacity to be moved, ‘a power to be affected.’”
Selected original clothing designs
As I continue to design and sew clothing, my goal is to create pieces that express my femininity without being necessarily tied to the male gaze and patriarchal understandings of femininity.
Selected last textile work
I often use projects in other classes as opportunities to explore textile materials and processes. Here, I include a selection of past textile work as a starting point for my semester’s explorations.
"Dirty Laundry"
Installation, September 2021
Installation, September 2021
How do we address harm in our communities? In this piece, I air out my community’s “dirty laundry,” through vinyl garments filled with pebbles and zines. The pebbles represent the weight that survivors carry around with them each day, while the zines offer up the teachings of transformative justice as a liberating force to help communities carry this weight together. The suits are made out of clear vinyl, symbolizing the necessity for transparent community care practices.
Viewers were encouraged to take a zine and a pebble from the installation; “when we educate ourselves and commit to accountability practices, we help each other carry the weight of our traumas and take responsibility for our collective healing.”
PDF of “so “support survivors:)” but don’t hold their abusers accountable…”
This installation was included in a group exhibition titled “Rituals of Healing,” on view in Groot Gallery from September 17th-October 15th, 2021. It included works by Kate HB, Alexa Sorensen, and Jorie Van Nest, with the following exhibition statement:
The three installations in this exhibition explore themes of transition, ritual, and reflection through suspended elements. Dirty Laundry visualizes a path towards collective healing from cycles of harm. Suspended Grief revolves around the question, “can we ever suspend our grief?” by materializing grief as a chandelier. Flow and Rise embodies the fluidity and temporality of water. Meditation on the ephemeral may affirm humans’ innate power to navigate difficult transitions with ease and grace. We invite you to use this space to reflect on your personal and communal rituals of healing.
"Community Care Closet"
Installation, May 2021
May 2021, Rolvaag Memorial Library at St. Olaf College
Clothing rack, hanging organizer, found fabric, vinyl playsuits, zines, art supplies
Community care is a practice that requires intentionality; we must “put it on” every day, just like we do clothes. In this installation, I aim to create a space for my community, to both learn from and teach each other. Using the concept of a closet to encourage exploration of the personal daily habits of community care, I designed and sewed two outfits that house a revolving community zine library and zine-making materials. I encouraged viewers to consider the questions: “What does my community need to know? What can I learn from my community?” as they read zines made by members of their community, and created their own zines using provided materials.
Through clothing made of clear vinyl, I comment on the necessity of transparency and accessibility in all community care practices. This work is situated in my college’s library, a place in which more knowledge is consumed than created. By creating their own zines, viewers work to tip that balance by contributing their own knowledge to the piece. Through validating the wisdom that exists within our community, we can begin to challenge the hierarchies that uphold Western academic knowledge production as absolute and universal.
Community care is a radical concept in a capitalist society, especially within a private college that rewards individualism. Through creating a space for my fellow St. Olaf community members to read the ideas of others, and share their own thoughts, I invite them to challenge these individualistic beliefs. Instead, we can put community care “on” and think about what we need to learn from our community, and what we have to share with it. Nobody takes better care of our community than us:)
This installation is currently on display until May 23rd, 2021. Additional documentation will be added as more people interact with it:)
Documentation of the zine suits included in this installation below. Find more information here.
Other materials included in this installation:
Digital library of the zines that have been included in/created for this installation
Zine Suits (Community Care Playclothes Series)
Mixed media, April-May 2021
Vinyl, zippers, buckles, zines, art supplies, April-May 2021
These pieces are included in my installation, “Community Care Closet.”
Community care is a practice that requires intentionality; we must “put it on” every day, just like we do clothes. With these pieces of clothing, made of clear vinyl, I comment on the necessity of transparency and accessibility in all community care practices, and create a community space for both the creation and consumption of knowledge and art. These suits, one holding a zine library and the other holding zine-creation materials, are meant to draw community in and provide the resources needed to share ideas directly with the community.
Zine Library Overalls:
Designed as a nod to the working class, these overalls hold a library of zines that is meant to uplift the knowledge that comes from our communities, instead of relying on the pretentious, inaccessible knowledge that is upheld as superior by capitalism’s elites. Depending on where they are worn or displayed, different zines relevant to the community they are situated in will flow in and out of them.
Zine Creation Suit:
In order to encourage the active creation of knowledge, this suit provides viewers with the materials needed to make their own zine to add to the zine library overalls. My goal with this piece is to validate that each of us has important knowledge worth sharing with our communities.
"playtime ! :)"
Wood & found fabric, April 2021
Wood & found fabric, April 2021
Inviting the viewer to interact with the piece, these colorful blocks can be arranged to create a multitude of abstract faces. Play time is for everyone:)
Untitled Tapestry
Textiles, December 2020
Yarn, hand-woven on hand-made loom, December 2020
"NOBODY TAKES BETTER CARE OF OUR COMMUNITY THAN US"
Found fabric, February 2021
Hand-stitched tapestry
Found fabric, February 2021
