bass note, 2026 // installation view // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

bass note, 2026 // installation view // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

cord, 2024-26 // installation view from bass note // obsolete technology cords, jute, music stands, wood and mixed media wall piece // 96 x 30 x 14″ structure with variable dimensions // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

spear, 2024-26 // installation view from bass note // cast aluminum, brass // 85 x 1.5 x 1.5″ // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

animal, 2026 // installation view from bass note // cotton blotting paper, ink, aluminum, flocking // 30 x 42 x 3″ // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

animal, 2026 (detail) // installation view from bass note // cotton blotting paper, ink, aluminum, flocking // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill. // photo by Holly Murkerson

cord, 2024-26 (detail) // installation view from bass note // obsolete technology cords, jute, music stands, wood and mixed media wall structure // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill.

cord, 2024-26 (detail) // installation view from bass note // obsolete technology cords, jute, music stands, wood and mixed media wall structure // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill.

cord, 2024-26 (detail) // installation view from bass note // obsolete technology cords, jute, music stands, wood and mixed media wall structure // 65GRAND, Chicago, Ill.

From the press release:

65GRAND and boundary (both Chicago) present Heather Mekkelson’s bass note snare, a two-part sculpture exhibition that unfolds across the distance of Chicago. 65GRAND, in the North Side neighborhood of Humboldt Park, features bass note. Sixteen miles away, in the South Side Morgan Park neighborhood, boundary presents snare.

Both sites of bass note snare offer their own partial articulation of the work, relying on a distributed condition to experience it fully. Using distance, delay, and relation, the complete experience allows the journey between the two galleries to become a third site for sensing the gap between as an active field.

The installations center on technology as sediment rather than a linear progression. Contemporary forms appear alongside objects that resemble artifacts, ambiguous in function and suspended between relic and speculation. As we contend with the endless pursuit of progress, what we recognize as new carries the imprint of what has been repeated, refined, or obscured in the layering process of history.