We are beyond thankful for the support from our regional businesses that help bring art to our communities.
The online viewing of this exhibition is sponsored by:

Heather MacKenzie Textile in Code
March 2022 | The Cultural Centre | Handweaving
“Cloth acts as protection, expression of individual and community identity, and its surface records our scuffles and spills. Poking at the stories and systems we take for granted, that we are embedded within, I create forms that are cheeky and disobedient, that buck linear conventions, and that often sprout useless appendages and awkward flaps.
Weaving employs algorithmic code tessellated across precise intersections of threads, layered with variables of color, material and density. A skillfully-woven cloth often retreats from our notice into the contradiction between our tacit expertise and our ignorance of its making. The twill of a police uniform. The satin of a prom dress. In its retreat lies a textile’s power to impact us on deeply emotional and intuitive levels, to tell stories and materialize logics, philosophies, and systems. I flirt with subliminal visibility, legibility and familiarity, leaning into our collective material hunger – an ache rooted in our general digital overwhelm and exacerbated by “new normals” of social distancing and the riskiness of human contact and sharing breath.
Through my research into the metric system and standardized measurement, global extractive industries, queer methodologies, and dominant systems of value and thought, I see ways we have bent ourselves to the outsourced and largely invisible systems of power and authority that mediate our lives. These systems reinforce disparities across race, gender, sexuality, class, and geography. Yet alongside these oppressive structures, I see ways that we create our own powerful systems of mutual aid, and write codes to survive and thrive.
-Heather MacKenize Artist Statement
A small sampling of
Featured Work

What does it feel like? (String Figure #7)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton

Rumble
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton

Reflecting Our Conditions (String Figure #2)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton

Pretzel (String Figure #1)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton

Gather (for Lenore Tawney)
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton and linen

Fumble (String Figure #3)
Heather MacKenzie
Handwoven cotton, 2019

Drape in Twill
Heather MacKenzie, 2014
Handwoven cotton

An Exercise
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton

Wanting to be a Triangle
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton, linen

Unspooling Across Oceans (String Figure #6)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton

Queer Warp #7
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton, rayon

Love Wordlessly (String Figure #5)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton

I WANT TO BE SEEN | Queer Encrypted Weaving with Charlie Heck AKA Liz Ensz
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven holographic curling ribbon, discarded feminine clothing

I WANT TO BE SEEN | Queer Encrypted Weaving with Charlie Heck AKA Liz Ensz
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven holographic curling ribbon, discarded feminine clothing

Hourglass Quilt in 100m
Heather MacKenzie, 2022
Handwoven measuring tape, sewing pins

Blossom
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven linen

Cloudscape in Mathematica
Heather MacKenzie, 2015
Handwoven cotton and polyolefin

Tesseract (simulation)
Heather MacKenzie, 2019
Handwoven cotton, polyester

Spill
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton, rayon

“A New and More Possible World” (for Audre Lorde)
Heather MacKenzie, 2020
Handwoven mohair, cotton, and holographic curling ribbon

Love Note to Self
Heather MacKenzie, 2022
Handwoven and embroidered cotton

Hourglass Quilt in 100m
Heather MacKenzie, 2022
Handwoven measuring tape, sewing pins

Forget the Fringe (for Emilie du Chatelet)
Heather MacKenzie, 2018
Handwoven cotton, wool, mohair

Diamond-Square Algorithm: Four Extrapolations
Heather MacKenzie, 2016
Handwoven cotton, Lexan

Diamond-Square Algorithm: Four Extrapolations
Heather MacKenzie, 2016
Handwoven cotton, Lexan

Tender
Heather MacKenzie, 2021
Handwoven holographic curling ribbon and mohair

ARTIST BIO
Heather MacKenzie is an electrician, artist, minor philosopher, and educator with an artistic practice founded in hand weaving. She has acted as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris, France; Fountainhead Fellow at VCU in Richmond, VA; and artist-in-residence at the Icelandic Textile Center, ACRE, MASS MoCA, Cite des Arts Paris, among others. Her work has been exhibited recently at venues including Chataqua Institution, the Textile Center of Minnesota; Sediment Gallery in Richmond, VA; Heaven Gallery and Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago; and PointDom in Toulouse, France. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies where she occasionally lectures, and her BA from Brown University.
EXPERIENCE MORE AT THE CULTURAL CENTRE
Michele Steffen Exhibition - January 2022
Paint | "Portraits, Figures and Fairy Tales"
Heather MacKenzie Exhibition - March 2022
Textile | "Textile in Code"
Tales from the Tall Grass Prairie - March 19th, 2022
Spoken Word | Themed "Uncomfortable Differences" this showing is a fundraiser for the Tinnes-Baker House
J. Arthur Anderson Exhibition- April 2022
"Bearing Witness"
Mary Schroepfer Exhibition - May 2022
Paint | "The Love of Painting"
The Renville County Market in Bird Island - May through August 2022
Wednesday evenings 4-7pm | Join us for local vendors, food, live music, art and community! May 25th - August 31st, 2022
Doug Pederson Exhibition - June 2022
"Wood, Bone & Oil"
Pearl Ziegenhagen Exhibition - July 2022
Watercolor | "My World in Watercolor"
McKenna Lilja Exhibition - August 2022
Multi-media | "Courageous Creativity"
Dena Bickhardt - September 2022
"Embracing the Challenge of Blindness" Sculptural Exhibition
Kalher & Happel Exhibition - October 2022
"Shades of Superstition Mountain"
Bird Island's Old Fashioned Christmas Market - December 2nd, 2022
An old fashioned community Christmas gathering and market with all the charm of your favorite Hallmark movie.
Address
640 Dogwood Avenue P.O. Box 434
Bird Island, MN 55310
(320) 365-1011
birdislandculture@gmail.com
Gallery Hours
Monday - Friday: 10am - 5pm
Summer Hours (May 1st - Aug. 31st)
Monday - Friday: 10am - 5pm
Wednesday: 10am - 7pm; Saturday 1-4pm
Follow


This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.