FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Exhibition: Economies of Line, February 3–13, 2017.
Opening Reception: Friday, February 3, 5-8 p.m.
"A square is sort of harsh and aggressive, but a rectangle is more relaxed." - Agnes Martin
A moiré forms when two grids of the same scale overlap. Their slight irregularities coalesce visually into areas of lightness and areas of density that resemble ripples in water, sedimentary rock, or the rainbow rings of a spreading oil slick. This organic and changeable mirage seems to contradict the rectilinear structure of the woven textile.
Economies of Line is a collection of hand-woven works produced using both floor looms and computer-assisted jacquards. Works include translations of fleeting moirés into the structure of cloth, multi-layered weaving that unfold off of the loom, and an absurdly-long, hand-woven tape measure that diagrams iconic forms. Through both form and concept, the works in this show challenge and expand the essential two-dimensionality of cloth.
Heather MacKenzie is an artist and educator with a research-based and concept-driven practice founded in hand weaving. Her research takes both theoretical and practical forms as she experiments with materials, processes, and loom technologies. Through the lens of the textile, in modes that include installation, performance, and writing, she investigates the material and abstract systems in which we participate. She draws parallels between the complex systems of woven structure and other wide-ranging but equally fundamental human systems that bridge the abstract and material worlds, such as platonic mathematics, the US petroleum industry, and standardized measurement.
She has acted as the Fountainhead Fellow at VCU, Fulbright Scholar in Paris, France, and artist-in-residence at MASS MoCA, Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Ox-Bow, and ACRE. She has exhibited work recently at venues including Sediment Gallery in Richmond, VA, the Mission Gallery and Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and PointDom in Toulouse, France. she received her BA from Brown University and her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
cargocollective.com/hmackenzie
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