Paige Jansen
a box for all the things i’ll never learn
3 September – 11 October 2025
I saw the tree with the metal leaves once more and anxiously tried to pluck one. Confused by the tension, I pulled harder and when the leaf severed the metal turned to glass, fracturing into infinite diaphanous shards scattering on the ground beneath. Down there they caught the twilight that had settled on the day and mirrored back the moon’s evening face with a primeval gleam. Whispers began sneaking around the room, emerging from the edges of the broken glass echoing back the contents of my mind. A swarm of questions slipped their way into the atmosphere, dancing around each other in a labyrinthine way. I reached out to catch them and they slid through my fingers, impossible to grasp, they found their comfort doing lengths around my ankles. I picked up a glass fragment and began to wonder what else remained amongst the hidden things.
In the form of an allegorical triptych, a box for all the things i’ll never learn is a cyclical body of work exploring psychological tensions the inner labyrinth and epiphany. The work invites you to walk into the spiral, pass the threshold and end with the box.
Paige Jansen is an Ōhinehou, Lyttelton–based artist who, through handwoven textiles and movement, composes work that sets out to explore the intimate texture of experience. Formed through intuitive, embodied modes of inquiry, Jansen’s work blends a poetic interest of materiality with the intangible aspects of being.
a box for all the things i’ll never learn is Paige Jansen’s first solo exhibition.
Images by Jude Stevens