‘What does an oracle look like?’ is an exhibition of paintings, prints, and books by Perri MacKenzie, a Scottish artist based in Brussels. The exhibition is an extension of the artist’s début publication What does an oracle look like? (2025). The exhibition uses the homonymous book as inspiration for the creation of new and existing works.

For Komplot, Perri MacKenzie will present a new installation of large-scale collage paintings on paper depicting the animal fountains of Sainte-Catherine, Brussels (sculpted by Georges Houstont and Godefroid Devreese, c.1895). For MacKenzie, the water gushing out of the fountain’s mouths is an energetic materialisation of voice, which is further amplified by the unruly dimensionality of the paintings. The exhibition additionally brings together drawings and screenprints alongside a presentation of her book. A graphical way of thinking pervades the works in the exhibition: an exploration into the leaky spaces of image, line, text, and voice.

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All printed works produced at Frans Masereel Centrum and Academie Beeldende Kunst Anderlecht.

About the artist

Perri MacKenzie is a Scottish painter and author based in Brussels. Her artistic output includes paintings, drawings, screen prints, and texts. A fascination with the material world and how it is interpreted permeates her work. Her bold and immersive compositions invite us to “read” them, engaging us in pictorial enigmas and textured fantasies. Her expressive works on paper are imbued with a theatrical energy; at the same time, an editorial approach connects her works in publications and multi-part exhibitions.

Her paintings have been featured in ‘Try See, Try Say’ at Wilford X, Temse; ‘Autofiction’ at Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam; ‘Look! Lightning has struck the flowers’ at Sundy, London; and ‘Noise! Frans Hals Otherwise’ at the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. Her essays and art criticism have been published in Glean, Le Chauffage, and The Serving Library.

Public Program

11.04.2025

18:00 Book launch, with readings by the artist

What does an oracle look like? gathers essays and drawings made by Perri MacKenzie between 2020 and 2024, themed loosely around pottery painting and vocal expression. The drawings, rendered in splashy India ink and collage, range from expressive sketches to theatrical still lives and experimental bandes dessinées. The book presents for the first time the essay ‘Cathedral’. Part memoir, part literary/sonic investigation, it meditates on the vocal texture of a Hollywood actor. 

What does an oracle look like? is written and drawn by Perri MacKenzie, with design by Ilke Gers. It is printed as an offset edition of 400 by robstolk Amsterdam. Published by Leaky Press, 2025.

17.05.2025

17:00-20:00 Wet T-Shirt Chorus

An evening of readings and performances featuring Théo Casciani, Toon Fibbe, Perri MacKenzie, and Anouchka Oler Nussbaum.

The wet t-shirt turns the body into pure contour: it leads us to character (shape, personality) and eros (desire). However, a chorus in a Greek tragedy is not a character or a personality. It is a collective of voices, working together to tell and re-tell. To re-tell the story means to breather life into long silent voices, taking their words into your mouth.

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