Bethany MacKenzie: (DE)COMPOSING
We are pleased to present our first rOGUE Gallery exhibition of 2026! (DE)COMPOSING by Bethany MacKenzie will be opening with a reception on Friday, February 6th from 6-8pm. We will have lots of snacks and refreshments as to go around. We look forward to seeing you there! Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event.
one day i will die.
on that day the land will envelop me.
and they will repeat back
all the ways they have and will hold me
(DE)COMPOSING marks MacKenzie’s first solo exhibition and shares work that explores the relationship between her body and place as they exist within the complex histories and heritage that they both carry. Using textiles, paper making and performance combined with photo-documentation by Johnny C. Y. Lam, MacKenzie questions and examines how colonization and patriarchy have severed and stigmatized Queer-Femme identity from the land while actively creating space for unmasked Queer expression and joy. Using the Ghillie-Suit, a traditional Scottish camouflage-garment that is most commonly seen through militaristic uses, MacKenzie creates an anti-camo suit that dances along the coast of Bonavista, their current place of residence. (DE)COMPOSING refers to both the breakdown of material after death, as well as the ways we “compose” ourselves in our everyday lives. While their work appears monstrous and at times, grotesque, this exhibition is an amalgamation of Queer-Femme expression that draws attention to what is perceived to be threatening, but in temporal simultaneity is both powerful and gentle, strong and soft.
Bethany MacKenzie (she/they), a Queer emerging interdisciplinary artist, is seen working on her project titled – The Land Has Always Seen Me, in her home studio in Bonavista, NL. (Johnny C.Y. Lam 07-08-2024)
Bethany MacKenzie (she/they) is a Queer Settler, emerging artist, and arts administrator currently based in eastern Ktaqmkuk, on the unceded homelands of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq (colonially known as Newfoundland). They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts (2021) from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador and have been acting Director of Union House Arts (UHA) since the spring of 2022. On top of their personal practice and administrative work, she also sits on the board of ATLANTIS (The Association of Artist Run Centres in the Atlantic) as their treasurer (2022-24). MacKenzie was the recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador BMO 1st Arts Award (2021) and most recently was graciously
awarded the VANL-CARFAC Mary MacDonald Award (2024).
MacKenzie uses labor, routine, and repetition to explore ideas of abjection in Queer identity and its relation to land-based practices, histories, community, and familial heritage. They see abjection as an object or “thing” that inspires feelings of both comfort and discomfort in (un)familiar subjects. Within that, their work attempts to walk the line of “in-betweenness,” in order to understand and critically examine moments of tension in shifting historic and contemporary contexts within their own Scottish-Irish heritage. They are committed to critically examining their Settler ancestry in relation to growing up on Indigenous Land in order to break down learned viewpoints and patterns that question how the social connotations and ‘rules’ within their own settler-cultures have influenced and caused harm in the ways that she views herself, her relationships, and the place(s) they call home; to view them as they are vulnerable, as empathetically and as softly as they can.