Heather Sheehan (born December 9, 1961) is an American artist who lives and works in Cologne, Germany. In her work, she combines elements of sculpture, installation, performance, video art and black and white photography. Her work focuses on the development and presentation of individual mythologies.
Table of Contents
- 1 Life and work
- 1.1 Munlochy Bridge / Heather On the Hill / Sheehan's Reel / Farmer's Reel
- 1.2 Eddany Lucky Sheehan T-Shirt Heather Gray
- 1.3 Eddany Lucky Sheehan Women Hoodie Heather Gray
- 1.4 Photography and Its Origins
- 1.5 Mauvaise Foi
- 1.6 Sandie Ower The Sea / Don Side / Heather Hill / The Mourne Mountains / Sheehan's Reel (Medley)
- 1.7 Journal of a Contract Killer
- 1.8 Music from Seamus 30
- 1.9 Mellanni Queen Sheet Set - Hotel Luxury 1800 Bedding Sheets & Pillowcases - Extra Soft Cooling Bed Sheets - Deep Pocket up to 16 inch Mattress - Wrinkle, Fade, Stain Resistant - 4 Piece (Queen, White)
- 1.10 Routledge Handbook of Judicial Behavior
Life and work
Sheehan studied at the Parsons School of Design and the New School of Social Research in New York. Until 1994, she lived and worked in New York City, after which she emigrated to Cologne.
The term Individual Mythology, originally coined by Harald Szeemann upon the occasion of the documenta 5, denotates a mode in which artists create works from their undependable inner sharpness as these relate, in their mythological qualities, to recurring deeds in human life, such as birth, death, etc. It follows that these art installations have a technical effect on the viewer. The vagueness of the presented impulses invites extra by, and resonance within, the viewers themselves. Sheehan’s main captivation lies in the narrative interweaving of perplexing interrelationships. Through her use of varied media, she achieves a multi-dimensional world of experience in which whatever relates to the resolved locations and her studies of them.
For the exhibition alighting (2015), for example, Sheehan produced a video entitled alighting on the river, which mirrors the two main themes in the records of the city of Augsburg, namely the textile manufacturing and the river Lech, which flows through Augsburg. A girl in a plain dress walks barefoot, each step slow and deliberate, along a river bank. She wears a white kerchief and puts down below a willow, the coarse linen bag and black rock which she carried in her arms subsequent to a child or her own soul. Then, she turns her put occurring to to the viewer of the black-and-white video and steps into the water which soon reaches her thighs. Cut. The bordering scene shows nothing but water, the increase of velocity river. The End. (in German: Eine Frau in einem schlichten Kleid geht barfuß, jeder Schritt langsam und tastend, an einem Flussufer entlang. Sie trägt ein weißes Kopftuch und legt unter einer Weide den Sack aus grobem Leinen und den schwarzen Stein ab, den sie wie ein Kind oder ihre Seele in den Armen trug. Dann dreht sie dem Betrachter des in Schwarz-Weiß gedrehten Videos den Rücken zu und schreitet ins Wasser, das ihr bald bis zu den Oberschenkeln reicht. Schnitt. Die nächste Einstellung zeigt nichts als Wasser, den dahinströmenden Fluss. Ende.)
The exhibition was opened by a action in which Sheehan – encased in a hessian sack – crawls into the room to gradually forgive herself from this cover. The main portion of the exhibition was conceived going on for self-staged, photographic, self-portrait in black and white photography, in which she deals physically in the make public of themes such as birth, stillbirth, loss, healing and transformation.
For the exhibition Soulfood (2003) at the Fuhrwerkswaage in Cologne, she installed the ingredients for 2000 kg of rice pudding in triangular formation: two read cubes together gone one hanging sack; ingredients not only for a comfort food for children and adults, but critical to basic nutrition of large portions of the world’s population: […] she combines the purism of the empty, utilitarian space when the campaigner concept of minimalism to Make the aura of a nevertheless life of motherly care. (in german: […] sie verbindet den Purismus des ausgeräumten Nutzraumes mit dem Minimalismus moderner Positionen zur Aura eines Stillebens mütterlicher Fürsorge.)
For Visitors and additional Beings (2011) in Siegburg, Germany, Sheehan created beings – in varying sizes, from giants beyond two meters high, to tiny forms of existence which one instinctively wants to protect. Although these creatures are made of textiles and seem subsequent to cuddly animals, on closer inspection they emerge rather as creepy and distressingly alien. This aerate is reinforced by the accompanying photographs: For this the performer took to the razor, partly removed the plush from the resin faces and partly formed it into hairstyles and eyebrows. Greatly enlarged, these panels are suggestive in their own way: The human figure seems to emerge from the plush toy. The observer becomes witness to a moulting process. (in german: Hierfür cap die Künstlerin zum Rasierer gegriffen und den Plüschstoff auf den Kunstharzgesichtern teilweise entfernt, teilweise zu Frisur und Augenbrauen geformt. In starker Vergrößerung wirken diese Tafeln auf ihre Weise suggestiv: Die menschliche Gestalt scheint aus der Plüschpuppe hervorzubrechen. Der Betrachter wird zum Zeugen eines Häutungsprozessses.)
For Under the Skin (2001), Sheehan conceived a nice of breeding station for the Lehmbruck Museum, in which entities, mutually only in transparent plastic, were nourished by tubes and investigated for apparently scientific purposes. They appeared soft and slimy, not entirely finished, or still in the process of maturing. Additionally, she created a video entitled Single Opening, in which she appeared as Professor Dr. Nurse and explained that the creatures are the outcome of the recreation of a monotreme, which she calls Maboutae. It possesses one good economic advantage: it has isolated one body opening and produces a special milk. She sarcastically caricatures them as an absurd research focus and our amateurish ideas nearly the possibility of genetic engineering and its economic advantages. (in German:Sarkastisch karikiert sie damit abseitige Forschungsschwerpunkte und unsere laienhaften Vorstellungen von den Möglichkeit der Gentechnik und deren ökonomischen Vorteilen.)
Like a kind of human seismograph, Sheehan senses energies of the rooms in which she works and exhibits. Based upon them, she develops her installations and performances: There is a place of fruitful tension between want and consciousness, between looking out at the world and looking incite in to the self. I mount up this place to gather and form images, objects, actions and words. I meld taking into account a material, until the brute experience sparks my practice. The endeavors I accept are guided by this charge. In a acknowledge of heightened awareness, I wisdom the poignancy of a presence wanting to be manifested in my hands, asking to be born and shared. (in German: Es gibt einen Ort der fruchtbaren Spannung zwischen Wunsch und Bewusstsein, zwischen dem Blick auf die Welt und Retrospektive in das Selbst. Ich gehe an diesen Ort, um Bilder, Gegenstände, Handlungen nd Worte zu sammeln und zu bilden. Ich verschmelze mit dem Material, bis das physische Erleben meine Praxis anregt. Die Handlungen, die ich durchführe, sind davon bestimmt. In einem Stadium erhöhter Aufmerksamkeit fühle ich die Dringlichkeit einer Anwesenheit, die durch meine Hände manifestiert werden möchte, und darum bittet, geboren und vermittelt/geteilt zu werden.)
Last update 2021-08-06