Heather Sheehan

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Heather Sheehan (born December 9, 1961 in Mount Vernon , New York ) is an American artist. She lives and works in Cologne . In her work she combines elements of sculpture , object , installation , performance , video art and black and white photographs . It focuses on the development and presentation of individual mythologies .

life and work

Self-portrait 2016, with an ear in the past ( black and white photography )

Heather Sheehan studied at Parsons The New School for Design and the New School of Social Research in New York . She lived and worked in New York City until 1994, after which she emigrated to Cologne . She is married to the artist Ivo rings .

The term individual mythology , originally coined by Harald Szeemann on the occasion of documenta 5 , describes the artist's way of working in which they create works of art based on their subjective inner perception in which they reflect recurring events in people's lives, such as birth, death, etc. thematize in their mythological qualities. Accordingly, these artistic installations seem puzzling to the viewer, who is invited to relive the ambiguity of the impulses presented and to re-experience them. Heather Sheehan's main interest is in the narrative interweaving of complex contexts using different media to create a kind of multidimensional world of experience . Everything is related to the given space and your research.

For example, she made a video for the exhibition alighting (2015) with the title alighting on the river , in which the two important themes from the history of Augsburg are reflected, namely textile art and the Lech river that flows through Augsburg. A woman in a simple dress walks barefoot, every step slowly and groping, along a river bank. She wears a white headscarf and puts the sack of coarse linen and the black stone under a willow that she carried in her arms like a child or her soul. Then she turns her back on the viewer of the video, which was shot in black and white, and steps into the water that soon reaches her thighs. Cut. The next shot shows nothing but water, the flowing river. The End.

The exhibition opened with a performance in which Sheehan - wrapped in a Hessian sack - crawls into the room, only to gradually free himself from this shell. An essential part of the exhibition concept were self-portraits staged by her in black and white , in which she physically deals with birth, stillbirth, loss, healing and transformation, the themes of her oeuvre as a whole.

For the exhibition Soulfood (2003) in the Fuhrwerkswaage in Cologne, she installed the ingredients for 2000 kg of rice pudding in a triangular formation: two visible cuboids together with a hanging sack; Elements that not only address rice as food for the soul for children and adults, but above all the fact that rice is a staple food for large parts of the world population: [...] it combines the purism of the cleared usable space with the minimalism of modern positions on the aura of a still life maternal care.

For Visitors And Other Beings (2011) in Siegburg she created beings - Beings (forms of existence) - in different sizes, from giants that are high above two meters, up to tiny forms of existence that you want to protect instinctively. Although these creatures made of textile materials look like cuddly toys, on closer inspection they turn out to be rather eerie and disturbingly alien. This impression is reinforced by the accompanying photographs: For this, the artist picked up the razor and partially removed the plush material from the synthetic resin faces, partially shaped it into a hairstyle and eyebrows. When magnified, these panels appear suggestive in their own way: the human figure seems to break out of the plush doll. The viewer becomes a witness of a molting process.

For Unter der Haut (2001) Sheehan designed a kind of hatchery in the Lehmbruck Museum , in which creatures - isolated from one another - were hidden under transparent plastic, which were fed with tubes and apparently examined for scientific purposes. They looked soft and slimy, as if they weren't quite finished or were just about to ripen. For this purpose, she created a video with the title Single Opening , in which she as Professor Dr. Nurse occurred and stated that it is in the nature of the revival of a form of existence of a cloaca animal IN QUESTION, which is Maboutae. It has a great economic advantage: it has only one opening in the body and produces a special milk. In this way, she sarcastically caricatures unrelated research focuses and our amateurish ideas of the possibility of genetic engineering and its economic advantages.

For Heather Sheehan, it's about tracing the energies of the spaces in which she works and exhibits , like a kind of human seismograph , and developing her installations and performances from them: There is a place of fertile tension between desire and consciousness, between looking out at the world and looking back in to the self. I go to this place to gather and form images, objects, actions and words. I report with a material until the physical experience sparks my practice. The actions I take are guided by this charge. In a state of heightened awareness, I sense the poignancy of a presence wanting to be manifested in my hands, asking to be born and shared. (in German: There is a place of fruitful tension between desire and consciousness, between looking at the world and looking into the self retrospectively. I go to this place to collect and form images, objects, actions and words. I merge with the material until physical experience stimulates my practice. The actions I take are determined by it. In a state of heightened awareness, I feel the urgency of a presence that wants to be manifested through my hands and asks for it, born and mediated / to be shared.)

Works in collections (selection)

Videography (selection)

  • 1995: Performance: On Pink , 18 ′ 02 ″
  • 1999: Single Opening , 08 ′ 15 ″
  • 2003: Performance: Each & Every , 04 ′ 21 ″
  • 2015: Performance: Alighting on the River , 14 ′ 32 ″
  • 2015: Performance: Waterline / Receding , 05 ′ 11 ″
  • 2018: Performance: I shot myself in Augsburg , 01 ′ 07 ″
  • 2019: Burlap Poem video (2012-2019) , 11 ′ 57 ″

Awards

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 1995 On Pink , ( Performance ) Hering Raum Bonn, Germany
  • 1997: Universal Mother , Barbara Cramer Gallery, Bonn, Germany
  • 1997: Made for Arolsen (installation), Museum Schloss Arolsen , Germany
  • 2000: Father , Pavillon Schloss Molsberg , Westerwald, Germany
  • 2000: Single Opening (video performance), Artothek Cologne, Germany
  • 2003: Soulfood , Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, Germany
  • 2005: Each and Every (video performance), Trinitatiskirche Cologne , Germany
  • 2007: Nike & Co. , Art Galerie Scheel, Morsum, Sylt, Germany
  • 2009: Heather Sheehan - Beings , Neue Galerie Landshut, Germany
  • 2011: Visitors and other Beings , Stadtmuseum Siegburg , Germany
  • 2012: Visitors, the Tall and the Small , Kunstverein Oerlinghausen, Germany
  • 2014: (W) hole , Selected Art Models, Cologne, Germany
  • 2015: Barking the Willow (exhibition and performance), Neue Galerie Landshut, Germany
  • 2015: Alighting (exhibition, video and performance), Kunstverein Augsburg , Germany
  • 2017: Institutional , Paul Clemen Museum , Bonn, Germany
  • 2018: I Shot Myself in Augsburg (exhibition and performance), Claudia Weil Galerie, Friedberg, Germany
  • 2019: A weighing (exhibition and performance), Susanne Neuerburg Galerie, Hennef, Germany

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

literature

  • Klaus Honnef , Brigitte Schlueter, Barbara Kückels (eds.): The abandoned shoes. Catalog for the exhibition in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn from November 5, 1993 to January 30, 1994 . Edition Braus, Berlin 1994, ISBN 978-3-89466-083-3 (illustration of the pair of shoes designed by Heather Sheehan on p. 119, Maid Mouse and Walka Walka , 1992).
  • Andrea El Danasouri: Heather Sheehan - Made for Arolsen. Exhibition catalog . Museum Stadt Arolsen, Bad Arolsen 1997, ISBN 978-3-930930-03-6 .
  • Johannes Bilstein, Ursula Trübenbach, Matthias Winzen (eds.): Power and care: the image of the mother in contemporary art and science . Oktagon, Cologne 1999, ISBN 978-3-89611-078-7 .
  • Foundation Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (ed.): Under the skin. Transformations of the biological in contemporary art . Duisburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-7757-9071-0 (catalog for the exhibition. With contributions by Cornelia Brüninghaus-Knubel, Söke Dinkla, Renate Heidt Heller, Werner Bartens, Christoph Brockhaus).
  • Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie (ed.): The first eight, exhibitions from 1998 - 2002 in the pavilion Schloss Molsberg . Molsberg 2002, ISBN 3-00-009439-3 .
  • Susanne Acker, Dorothy Nelkin: The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor 2003, ISBN 978-0-87969-697-9 .
  • Burkard Leismann, Ralf Scherer (Hrsg.): Diagnosis Art - Diagnosis Art. Medicine in the mirror of contemporary art. Contemporary . Wienand, Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-87909-902-3 .
  • Museum of Contemporary Art Kraków (ed.): Medicine in Art . Without publisher's information, Krakow 2016, ISBN 978-83-62435-47-0 (Polish, English, exhibition catalog).
  • Heather Sheehan: The Life of Stuff . In: Edie Meidav; Emmalie Dropkin (Ed.): Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance . University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 2019, ISBN 978-1-62534-423-6 , pp. 176-183 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foundation Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (ed.): Under the skin . 2001, p. 133 (catalog).
  2. ↑ The American sculptor Heather Sheehan designed the exhibition 'alighting' at the Kunstverein Augsburg with performance, installation, photography and drawing. In: a3kultur.de. August 19, 2015, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage (ed.): Soulfood . Cologne 2003, ISBN 978-3-930636-51-8 (catalog for the exhibition. With a foreword by Manfred Schneckenburger ).
  4. ↑ Jürgen Röhrig: Exhibition - As beautiful as an old elephant. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . April 6, 2011, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  5. ^ Foundation Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (ed.): Under the skin. Transformations of the biological in contemporary art . Duisburg 2001, ISBN 978-3-7757-9071-0 , p. 54 .
  6. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Artist Statement. In: heathersheehan.com. Retrieved March 15, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Heather Sheehan. In: MOCAK (Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow). Retrieved March 15, 2017 ( Kraków Museum of Contemporary Art ,).
  8. ↑ Collection. In: City Museum Siegburg . Retrieved March 15, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Single Opening. In: vimeo.de. November 21, 2014, accessed July 6, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Alighting. In: vimeo.com. August 15, 2015, accessed January 20, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Waterline / Receding. In: vimeo.com. September 14, 2015, accessed January 20, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Heather Sheehan: I shot myself in Augsburg. In: vimeo.com. November 28, 2018, accessed January 20, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Burlap Poem video (2012-2019). In: vimeo.com. August 26, 2019, accessed January 22, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Guest artist 2017. Accessed March 15, 2017 .
  15. ↑ On Pink - Heather Sheehan . Ed .: ViSophie. Video for the exhibition in the Hering room Bonn, 1995
  16. ^ Klaus Honnef: Heather Sheehan - Single Opening - Video projection . In: museenkoeln.de. August 30, 2000. Retrieved March 10, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Single Opening - Heather Sheehan . Ed .: ViSophie. Video for the exhibition in the Artothek Cologne, 2000
  18. ↑ Ursula Trübenbach: Heather Sheehan. In: artopening.de. 2006, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Jola Merten: Nike 2007. In: artopening.de. Retrieved March 8, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Karin Prignitz: Strange Friends - sculptures by Heather Sheehan irritate, unsettle and arouse curiosity. In: Neue Westfälische Online. September 4, 2012, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  21. ↑ RMW: Cologne flying visit SAM - One object show. In: Rheinische-Art.de. August 2014, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Heather Sheehan: sack - rope - stone: In muddier years. Neue Galerie Landshut, February 5, 2017, accessed on March 8, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Heather Sheehan - alighting. In: Website of the Kunstverein Augsburg. Retrieved March 8, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Michael Schreiner: Diving into the flow of symbols. The American artist Heather Sheehan shows her intimate scenes and role-plays at the Kunstverein. A 25 meter long wall drawing was created in the exhibition. In: Augsburger Allgemeine Online. July 22, 2015, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Heather Sheehan: Institutional. In: khi.uni-bonn.de. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
  26. ^ Judith Roderfeld: Exhibition: Heather Sheehan does more than just selfies. In: augsburger-allgemeine.de. November 23, 2018, accessed November 12, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Heather Sheehan: A weighing. In: www.susanneneuerburg.de. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Ursula Bode: In search of the abandoned shoe: an exhibition in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum: Reichlich Bein and Pömps. In: Zeit Online . December 19, 1993. Retrieved March 9, 2017 .
  29. ↑ Heather Sheehan - Ward Shelley - Two Americans in Aschaffenburg. In: kunst-und-kultur.de. Retrieved March 9, 2017 .
  30. ^ Diagnosis [art]. Medicine as reflected in contemporary art. Art, artists and collectors in the mirror of medical issues. Retrieved March 21, 2017 .
  31. ↑ Restructured. Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange, 2016, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  32. ↑ 5th Biennale Internationale d'art non objectif. In: isere.fr. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Exhibition: Beauty !? In: galerie-clement.de. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Sheehan, Heather
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American performance and installation artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Mount Vernon , New York