Heather Sheehan

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. She frequently uses textiles in her works. Other components of her compositions are short stories on the respective themes and poetry. Her work focuses on the development and presentation of individual mythologies.

Life and work
Sheehan studied at the Parsons School of Design and the New School of Social Research in New York. From 1981 to 1983, she studied textile science and women's tailoring at the Fashion Institute of Technology at the State University of New York. She graduated in 1983 with the Associate Degree of Applied Science (AAS). 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 on the occasion of the documenta 5, denotes a mode in which artists create works from their subjective inner perception as these relate, in their mythological qualities, to recurring events in human life, such as birth, death, etc. It follows that these art installations have a puzzling effect on the viewer. The ambiguity of the presented impulses invites reflection by, and resonance within, the viewers themselves. Sheehan's main interest lies in the narrative interweaving of complex interrelationships. Through her use of varied media, she achieves a multi-dimensional world of experience in which everything relates to the given 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 history of the city of Augsburg, namely the textile manufacturing and the river Lech, which flows through Augsburg. "A woman in a plain dress walks barefoot, each step slow and deliberate, along a river bank. She wears a white kerchief and puts down under a willow, the coarse linen sack and black stone which she carried in her arms like a child or her own soul. Then, she turns her back to the viewer of the black-and-white video and steps into the water which soon reaches her thighs. Cut. The next scene shows nothing but water, the rushing 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 performance in which Sheehan – encased in a hessian sack – crawls into the room to gradually free herself from this cover. The main part of the exhibition was conceived around self-staged, photographic, self-portrait in black and white photography, in which she deals physically with 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 open cubes together with one hanging sack; ingredients not only for a comfort food for children and adults, but essential to basic nutrition of large portions of the world's population:  "[...] she combines the purism of the empty, utilitarian space with the modern concept of minimalism to create the aura of a still 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 other Beings  (2011) in Siegburg, Germany, Sheehan created beings - in varying sizes, from giants over two meters high, to tiny forms of existence which one instinctively wants to protect. Although these creatures are made of textiles and seem like cuddly animals, on closer inspection they emerge rather as creepy and disturbingly alien. This impression is reinforced by the accompanying photographs: "For this the artist 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 hat 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 kind of "breeding station" for the Lehmbruck Museum, in which entities, mutually isolated 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 result of the recreation of a monotreme, which she calls Maboutae. It possesses one great economic advantage: it has only one body opening and produces a special milk. "She sarcastically caricatures them as an absurd research focus and our amateurish ideas about 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 on them, she develops her installations and performances: "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 meld 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: 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.)

Collections

 * Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
 * Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Poland
 * Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Germany

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″
 * 2021: Hers is a Story, 04′ 06″

Awards

 * 2015 - 2016 MacDowell Colony Colony Fellowship, United States
 * 2017 Guestartist at Schloss Plüschow, Germany

Solo exhibitions (selection)

 * 1995 On Pink (Performance), Hering Raum Bonn, Germany
 * 1997: Universal Mother, Galerie Barbara Cramer, Bonn, Germany
 * 1997: Made for Arolsen (Installation), Museum Schloss Arolsen, Germany
 * 2000: Father, Pavillon Schloss Molsberg, Westerwald, Germany
 * 2000: Single Opening, (Videoperformance), Arthothek Cologne, Germany
 * 2003: Soulfood, Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, Germany
 * 2005: Each and Every (Videoperformance), Trinity Church Cologne, Germany
 * 2007: Nike & Co., Art Galerie Scheel, Morsum, Sylt, Germany
 * 2009: Heather Sheehan - Beings, Neue Galerie Landshut, Landshut, Germany
 * 2011: Visitors and other Beings, Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg, Germany
 * 2012: Visitors, the Tall and the Small, Kunstverein Oerlinghausen, Oerlinghausen, Germany
 * 2014: (W)hole, Selected Art Models, Cologne, Germany
 * 2015: Barking the Willow, (Exhibition and Performance), Neue Galerie Landshut, Landshut, Germany
 * 2015: Alighting, (Exhibition, Video and Performance), Kunstverein Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
 * 2017: Institutional, Paul-Clemen-Museum of the University of Bonn, Germany
 * 2018: I Shot Myself in Augsburg, (Exhibition and Performance), Claudia Weil Galerie, Friedberg, Germany
 * 2019: A weighing/Eine Wägung (Exhibition and Performance), Susanne Neuerburg Galerie, Hennef, Germany
 * 2021: Sharpless, Margaret, Milton Art Bank (MAB), Milton, Pennsylvania, United States
 * 2024: Heather Sheehan: Sylta, the Whaling Widow who wails, Altfriesisches Haus, Sylt, Germany

Group exhibitions (selection)

 * 1988: Not Out of Fashion (Performance), New York Public Theater, New York, USA
 * 1993: Die verlassenen Schuhe, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany
 * 1999: Zwei Amerikaner in Aschaffenburg, Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany
 * 1999: Macht und Fürsorge, Trinity Church Cologne, Germany
 * 2001: Unter der Haut - Transformationen des Biologischen in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
 * 2006: Diagnose [Kunst], Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Germany
 * 2007: Familybonds, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
 * 2011: Nicht Für Sie, Kunstverein Passau, Passau and Große Rathausgalerie Landshut, Landshut, Germany
 * 2015: 25 Jahre Kunst im Stadtmuseum, Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg, Germany
 * 2016: Medicine in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Poland
 * 2016: Restructured, Newlyn Art Gallery, England
 * 2019: 5. Biennale Internationale d'art non objectif, Le Pont-de-Claix, France
 * 2019: Schönheit!?, Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn, Germany