Pagan McKenzie
Pagan McKenzie is a Scottish interdisciplinary artist from Glasgow, working across abstract sculpture, conceptual installation and material experimentation. Her practice incorporates found and discarded objects, natural materials, metal, wood, light and moving image to investigate cultural memory, identity and transformation. Drawing on her Scottish and Irish heritage, she explores Celtic folklore, ancestral traditions and the contemporary reinterpretation of historical material practices. For RAW STATES の, curated by Marie Camara for off-RCA at Niche.Show London 2026, McKenzie presents Diabhal, a sculptural work transforming stinging nettles into handwoven rope.
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Pagan McKenzie is a Scottish interdisciplinary artist from Glasgow whose practice moves between abstract sculpture, conceptual installation and material experimentation.
Working with found and discarded objects, natural materials, metal, wood, light and moving image, she explores the translation of conceptual ideas into physical form.
Of Scottish and Irish descent, McKenzie's current research investigates her relationship with Celtic cultural heritage, particularly the fragmentation and displacement of ancestral traditions within contemporary British society.
Her practice engages with historical symbols, folklore, plant knowledge and the resurgence of Gaelic language, considering how these cultural forms might be reinterpreted through contemporary art.
Through an abstract and occasionally surrealist visual language, McKenzie examines the relationship between cultural identity, collective memory and material processes.
Rather than reconstructing historical practices as fixed traditions, her work explores their continuing potential for transformation, reinterpretation and contemporary relevance.
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For RAW STATES の, Pagan McKenzie presents Diabhal, a sculptural work investigating the relationship between raw materials, ancestral knowledge and the contemporary reinterpretation of Celtic traditions.
Drawing upon research into Scottish and Irish folklore, McKenzie transforms stinging nettles into rope through a process of harvesting, preparing and weaving natural fibres.
The work revisits historical uses of nettles, a plant associated with sustenance, medicinal practices and protective symbolism within Celtic folklore.
Through this transformation, a familiar and often unwanted plant becomes a material of cultural significance.
The title Diabhal, meaning 'devil' in Gaelic, references traditional beliefs surrounding the nettle's protective properties.
Conceived as a contemporary talisman, the work explores how ancestral knowledge can be reactivated through material processes, connecting cultural memory with the physical act of making.
Within RAW STATES の, Diabhal proposes raw material as a carrier of inherited knowledge, symbolic meaning and cultural continuity.
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DIABHAL — 2026
Stinging nettle fibre, handwoven rope, sculptural installation.
Diabhal is a contemporary sculptural work by Pagan McKenzie exploring the relationship between Celtic folklore, ancestral material practices and cultural identity.
The work transforms stinging nettles into rope, drawing upon historical plant uses and traditional methods of fibre production.
Within Celtic folklore, the nettle has been associated with protection against harmful forces, alongside its practical applications as a source of food, medicine and fibre.
Through harvesting, processing and weaving, McKenzie reinterprets these associations within a contemporary sculptural language.
The resulting work functions as a symbolic talisman, examining how the physical transformation of natural materials can become an act of cultural remembrance and reconnection.