Alexandra Hirst

Alexandra Hirst is an emerging South Australian based artist living and working on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people. While obtaining her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Sculpture) at UNSW, she was exposed to glassblowing through an international exchange program and was instantly drawn to the materiality and collaborative nature of glass craft. Her work spans glass blowing, glass casting and installations are heavily inspired by repetitive patterns, cycles of the natural world and emotional connection. Combining the fast paced and heated excitement of glassblowing with a slow, labour intensive and meditative task of etching and carving into glass, her practice, which began as a reflection of her surroundings, has evolved into an aesthetic and emotive lens for the projection and reflection of her personal experience, exploring themes of non-verbal expression, meditation and therapy.
The transparency and optical qualities of glass make it the perfect medium to explore these themes along with repetition and layering -In 2019, Alexandra completed her Masters in Glass at the Edinburgh College of Art, where she learned to incorporate digital technologies with traditional glassblowing and casting techniques. Her 3D printed cast glass artwork, Building Blocks 2020 and Fractals 2022 were finalists in the emerging artist category of the Fuse Glass Prize. Following her masters, Alexandra joined the JamFactory in Adelaide, South Australia, where she is working as a glassblower while she continues to grow her artistic practice.