{{short description|American artist (born 1961)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Heather Sheehan | image = Heather Sheehan Self-Portrait with an Ear to the Past 2016.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Self-portrait 2016, ''With an Ear to the Past'' (black and white photography) | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|12|9}} | birth_place = Mount Vernon, New York, United States | death_date = | death_place = | field = Installation, Performance, Black and White Photography, Video art, Sculpture | training = | movement = Performance art, video art, fiber art | works = | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = | spouse = Ivo Ringe | website = {{URL|https://heathersheehan.com}} }} '''Heather Sheehan''' (born December 9, 1961 in Mount Vernon, New York) is an American artist and author. She lives and works in Cologne, Germany. Her work juxtaposes literary and visual art forms. Sheehan’s focus is on the development of individual mythologies, which are presented in multimedia and transmedial forms, often combining black and white self-portrait photography, performance art and fiber art.
== Education, career and personal life == Sheehan grew up in Southern Connecticut. In high school, she was introduced to the medium of fiber arts through her teacher, Anne Levine.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Buhmann |first=Stephanie |title=Rheinland Studio Conversations: Fünfzehn Frauen Sprechen Über Kunst |publisher=The Green Box |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-96216-012-8 |location=Berlin |pages=50–64, 223, 230 |language=German}}</ref>
Sheehan studied at the Parsons School of Design and the New School of Social Research in New York.<ref name="Unter der Haut">{{cite book |publisher=Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum |title=Unter der Haut (Katalog) |page=133 |year=2001 |language=German}}</ref> 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.
Sheehan lived and worked on Christopher Street in New York City from 1983 to 1990. In 1994, she emigrated to Cologne, Germany. Sheehan is married to the artist Ivo Ringe.<ref name=":0" />
== Artwork and artist books ==
=== Fiber art === Since 1996, Sheehan has produced several notable works of art using textiles, including ''Universal Mother'', ''single opening'', ''Soulfood'' and ''Visitors and other Beings.'' Her fiber art works are mainly constructed from sewn textiles or wool felt and also appear as central components in works of assemblage. The sculptural objects may stand alone in relation to the location where they are installed, but may also feature as prop objects in Sheehan's works of performance.<ref name=":0" />
'''''Universal Mother'''''
For ''Universal Mother'' (1996)'','' Sheehan hand-stitched several larger than life-sized, merino wool felt abstracted figurative objects and rubbed them with powder pigments or Vaseline. In 1997, the series was installed in a former prince’s bedroom within the baroque style residential castle and contemporary art museum of Arolsen Castle. The experiential environment featured a sculptural trio that questions the power roles within the concept of an archetypal family. A catalogue of the artist's sketches and writings in English and German, as well as photographs of all works in situ, accompanied the exhibition.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Heather |title=Made for Arolsen |last2=El-Danasouri |first2=Andrea |last3=Kümmel |first3=Birgit |publisher=Museum Bad Arolsen |year=1997 |isbn=3-93093003X |language=English, German}}</ref> In the 1996 precursor to the exhibition, the artist performed ''to soothe,'' with a felt and Vaseline wall relief using a vacuum cleaner and razor.
'''''single opening'''''
In 1999, Sheehan devised a pseudo scientific multimedia and transmedial installation work titled, ''single opening''. The artwork is fixated around a video in which Sheehan performs in the costumed role of a character named Professor Dr. Nurse, and lectures on her experiments to revive a fictitious monotreme mammal. Sheehan wrote the English and German script using phrasing taken from actual genetic science news reporting. She sarcastically caricatures obscure research topics and our amateurish ideas about the possibilities of genetic engineering and its economic advantages.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Under the Skin: Transformations of the Biological in Contemporary Art |publisher=Hatje Cantz and Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum |year=2001 |isbn=978-3-7757-9071-0 |location=Duisburg |pages=54 |language=English}}</ref> The prop-objects for the series, sewn from wool felt and slathered with Vaseline, are housed in crude incubators sewn from transparent plastic, and provided with feeding tubes. Soft and slimy, they appear to be creatures, incomplete, or still in the process of maturing. For the exhibition ''Under the Skin - Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art'' at the Lehmbruck Museum in 2001, Sheehan installed the work in a laboratory breeding station/classroom. The video was later provided with Polish subtitles, and is in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sheehan, Heather via the MOCAK online collection database |url=https://en.mocak.pl/sheehan-en |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=en.mocak.pl |language=en}}</ref>
'''''Soulfood'''''
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.<ref>{{citation |title=Soulfood |date=2003 |editor-surname1=Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage |publisher=Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage |publication-place=Köln |language=German |isbn=978-3930636518}}</ref> The key ingredient, milk, was not supplied. The exhibition opened following a week of World Food Programme airdrop assistance to Afghanistan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-03-14 |title=WFP Emergency Report No. 11 of 2003 - Afghanistan {{!}} ReliefWeb |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/wfp-emergency-report-no-11-2003 |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=reliefweb.int |language=en}}</ref>
'''''Visitors and other Beings'''''
From 2004 through 2011 Sheehan developed a series called, ''Visitors and other Beings''',''''' featuring sewn and needle-sculpted plush textile figures, varying in size from very large to miniature. The figures are intended to be benevolent beings with facial and bodily expressions that reflect a spectrum of human emotions and experiences.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Gesing |first=Martin |title=Heather Sheehan, Visitors and other beings |last2=Caspary |first2=Gundula |publisher=Verlag nicht ermittelbar |year=2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Röhrig |first=Jürgen |date=6 April 2011 |title=Ausstellung - Schön wie ein alter Elefant |url=http://www.ksta.de/ausstellung-schoen-wie-ein-alter-elefant-12196346 |access-date=8 March 2017 |work=Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger |language=German}}</ref>
=== Individual Mythologies === Sheehan has created several thematic artworks and artist books that deal with Individual Mythologies, a term used by Swiss curator, artist, and art historian Harald Szeemann, which refers to a working method of those artists who create works of art based on their subjective inner perception, addressing recurring events in human life, such as birth and death, in their mythological qualities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Birnbaum |first=Daniel |date=2005-06-01 |title=Harald Szeemann |url=https://www.artforum.com/columns/harald-szeemann-171585/ |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref> Sheehan has produced such works in multimedia and transmedial projects, including her solo exhibition ''alighting,'' the performance cycle ''SeamStress'', and the two exhibitions including artist books, ''Sharpless, Margaret,'' and ''Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails''. '' ''
'''''alighting'''''
For the 2015 exhibition ''alighting'' at Kunstverein Augsburg, in Augsburg, Germany, Sheehan created a video, in which two themes from the history of the medieval city are reflected, namely textile art and the River Lech, which flows through Augsburg. Black-and-white self-portrait sequences, photographed and staged by Sheehan between 2012 and 2015, and two performances with a monumental fiber art object are central to the exhibition.<ref>{{cite web |date=19 August 2015 |title=Mit Performance, Installation, Fotografie und Zeichnung gestaltet die amerikanische Bildhauerin Heather Sheehan die Ausstellung 'alighting' im Kunstverein Augsburg |url=http://a3kultur.de/nachrichten/kreislauf-des-lebens |access-date=8 March 2017 |work=a3kultur.de |language=German}}</ref>
'''''SeamStress'''''
Inspired by her annual stays (2012-2023) at the historic manor house, the Mecklenburg Artists’ House, Schloss Plüschow, Germany,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ostsee-Zeitung |date=2025-11-04 |title=Ostsee-Zeitung - Aktuelle Nachrichten aus MV |url=https://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/ |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=www.ostsee-zeitung.de |language=de}}</ref> Sheehan developed the 2017 performance cycle, ''SeamStress''. Sheehan built a textile factory in the attic of the house. By negotiating the position of a worker woman – literally – in her own body, in a performance, Sheehan brings the repressed past into the present, making it discussable and experiential: "She invites observers into the innermost sanctums of the life of a woman – and women throughout the ages – instructing through physicality the role women have played throughout history. In industrial society, women often struggled to make ends meet, and they did so through humiliating and excruciating work."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Daulton |first=Dickey |date=December 2019 |title=An Interview with Performance Artist Heather Sheehan |url=http://media.icompendium.com/heather3_D.Dickey-Interviews-H.Sheehan.pdf |website=iCompendium}}</ref>
'''''Sharpless, Margaret'''''
At the Milton Art Bank, in Milton, Pennsylvania, Sheehan created the photographic narrative ''Sharpless, Margaret,'' about a fictitious spinster bookkeeper working at the bank in the year 1918.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Heather Sheehan |url=https://www.miltonartbank.com/mabbooks/p/sharpless-margaret-the-ledger-of |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=Milton Art Bank |language=en-US}}</ref>
In preparation for the analogue self-portrait photo shoot, Sheehan sewed a costume from historical patterns of the period, including an Edwardian corset, and grew her hair for two years in order to cut it on-camera for the dramatic turning point in the narrative. On location in January 2020, sleeping in the bank, Sheehan stepped into character and captured images of herself portraying Margaret's everyday life before, during, and after she suffers a breakdown. Two video compositions were made. The artist also wrote a first person text, a letter, presented as if written by her illegitimate son, Thomas to the insane asylum holding his mother, pleading for her release at a time when families had been forever separated due to war and the Spanish Flu.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Heather |title=Sharpless, Margaret, The Ledger of |publisher=MAB Books |year=2021 |isbn=9781733184045 |pages=176}}</ref>
''Sharpless, Margaret, The Ledger of''',''''' published by MAB Books in 2021 was introduced during the multimedia and transmedial exhibition. In the book, the letter appears hidden among the complete sequence of over seventy black-and-white self-portrait photographs.<ref name=":5" />
'''''Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails'''''
Sheehan’s 2024 project ''Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails'' took place at two locations of the Sölring Museums, the Sylt Museum and The Old Frisian House on the North Sea island of Sylt. The narrative describes the experiences of a fictional character named Sylta who is the widow of a wealthy whaler who died during a whaling voyage. For the project, Sheehan created a period-style costume and photographed herself inside the rooms within the Old Frisian House.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Rehrmann |first=Marc-Oliver |title=Als die Norddeutschen noch auf Walfang gingen. |date=2025 |publisher=NDR. 17}}</ref>
In the accompanying short story, ''Meeting Sylta'', Sheehan recounts how her concept for this project took shape and the extent to which she had to come to terms with herself in order to face the tragic story of the whalers' pregnant widow.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Heather |title=Sylta: the Whaling Widow who Wails |publisher=Verlag Kettler |year=2024 |isbn=9783987411007 |location=Dortmund}}</ref>
During the exhibition, Sheehan read several passages from the short story. Alexander Römer, director of the Sölring Museums, describes the impact of the exhibition and readings, as "A new form of exhibition at the Sylt Museum yet one that attracted considerable attention beyond the island's borders and received gratifying acclaim, while at the same time challenging and inspiring visitors to approach the historical theme in unexpected ways.”<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-28 |title=Sölring Foriining Jahresbericht 2024 |url=https://soelring-foriining.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Soelring_148x210mm_2025_final-komprimiert.pdf |website=soelring-foriining.de |page=34 |format=PDF}}</ref>
==Exhibitions and collections== Sheehan’s work has been exhibited internationally by museums and galleries. Some notable exhibitions include, ''Universal Mother: Made for Arolsen'', Museum Bad Arolsen, Bad Arolsen, Germany;<ref name=":1" /> ''Under the Skin - Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art'', Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany;<ref name=":2" /> ''alighting,'' Kunstverein Augsburg, in Augsburg, Germany;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bonnet |first=Anne-Marie |title=Heather Sheehan, photographic works 2012-2015 |last2=Honnef |first2=Klaus |publisher=Kunstverein Augsburg e.V. |location=Augsburg, Germany |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-00-067231-6 |language=German, English}}</ref> ''Heather Sheehan: Visitors and other beings,'' Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg, Germany und Stadtmuseum Beckum, Beckum, Germany;<ref name=":3" /> ''Sharpless, Margaret,'' Milton Art Bank, Milton, PA;<ref name=":4" /> and ''Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails, die Walfängerwitwe, die weint,'' Sölring - Sylt Museum & Old Frisian House, Keitum, the island of Sylt, Germany.<ref name=":6" />
Sheehan’s art is collected by notable institutions including Kunstmuseum Bonn,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ecosign.de/de/die-ecosign/ueber-die-akademie/dozenten/heather-sheehan.php |title=Heather Sheehan |website=www.ecosign.de |accessdate=2019-07-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://artfacts.net/artist/heather-sheehan/4812 |title=Heather Sheehan |website=artfacts.net |accessdate=2019-07-06}}</ref> Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków,<ref>{{cite web |title=Heather Sheehan |work=MOCAK (Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow) |url=https://en.mocak.pl/sheehan-en |accessdate=15 March 2017}}</ref> Poland; and Stadtmuseum Siegburg,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stadtmuseum-siegburg.de/ausstellungen/archiv/archiv-2010-bis-2019/index.html |title=Ausstellungsarchiv – 2010 bis 2019 |website=Stadtmuseum Siegburg |accessdate=2022-02-17}}</ref> Germany. Germany. Sheehan’s artist books are included in the library collections of the Yale Library,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Heather |url=https://search.library.yale.edu/catalog/99171313223408651 |title=Heather Sheehan : Sylta : the whaling widow who wails = Die Walfängerwitwe, die weint: (Yale Library Catalog) |date=2024 |publisher=Verlag Kettler |isbn=978-3-98741-100-7 |location=Dortmund}}</ref> the James Baldwin Library and the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne.<ref>{{Cite web |title=KunstBibliothek Köln online catalog |url=https://www.kubi-koeln.de/portal/search.html?num=20&page=1&l=de&srt=year_desc&st=1<=&fs=Heather%20Sheehan |access-date=2025-11-07 |website=www.kubi-koeln.de}}</ref>
==Awards== * 2015 - 2016 MacDowell Colony Colony Fellowship, United States<ref>{{cite web |title=Heather Sheehan |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists?q=Heather+Sheehan |accessdate=2022-02-17 |website=Macdowell.org}}</ref> * 2017 Guest artist at Schloss Plüschow, Germany<ref>{{cite web |title=Gastkünstler 2017 |url=https://www.plueschow.de/kuenstler/gastkuenstler-2017 |accessdate=15 March 2017 |language=German}}</ref>
== Videography (selection) == * 1995: ''Performance: On Pink'', 18′ 02″ * 1999: ''Single Opening'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/112467563 |title=Heather Sheehan: Single Opening |website=vimeo.de |date=2014-11-21 |accessdate=2019-07-06}}</ref> 08′ 15″ * 2003: ''Performance: Each&Every'', 04′ 21″ * 2015: ''Performance: Alighting on the River'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/136372709 |title=Heather Sheehan: Alighting |website=vimeo.com |date=2015-08-15 |accessdate=2020-01-20}}</ref> 14′ 32″ * 2015: ''Performance: Waterline/Receding'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/139187758 |title=Heather Sheehan: Waterline/Receding |website=vimeo.com |date=2015-09-14 |accessdate=2022-02-17}}</ref> 05′ 11″ * 2018: ''Performance: I shot myself in Augsburg'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/303279293 |title=Heather Sheehan: I shot myself in Augsburg |website=vimeo.com |date=2018-11-28 |accessdate=2020-01-20}}</ref> 01′ 07″ * 2019: ''Burlap Poem video (2012–2019)'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/356005023 |title=Heather Sheehan: Burlap Poem video (2012–2019) |website=vimeo.com |date=2019-08-26 |accessdate=2020-01-22}}</ref> 11′ 57″ * 2021: ''Hers is a Story'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jti-rxvW2xU |title=Hers is a Story |website=youtube.com |date=2021-09-17 |accessdate=2022-02-17}}</ref> 04′ 06″
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * {{citation |editor1= Klaus Honnef |editor2=Brigitte Schlüter |editor3=Barbara Kückels|title=Die verlassenen Schuhe. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Rheinischen Landesmuseum Bonn vom 5. November 1993 bis 30. Januar 1994 |trans-title=The abandoned Shoes. Catalog for the exhibition at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn from November 5, 1993 to January 30, 1994 |publisher=Edition Braus|publication-place=Berlin|isbn=978-3894660833|date=1994|language=German}} * {{citation|surname1=Andrea El Danasouri|title=Heather Sheehan - Made for Arolsen. Katalog zur Ausstellung|publisher=Museum Stadt Arolsen|publication-place=Bad Arolsen|isbn=978-3930930036|date=1997-01-01|language=German}} * {{citation|editor1=Johannes Bilstein |editor2=Ursula Trübenbach |editor3=Matthias Winzen|title=Macht und Fürsorge: Das Bild der Mutter in zeitgenössischer Kunst und Wissenschaft|publisher=Oktagon|publication-place=Köln|isbn=978-3896110787|date=1999|language=German}} * {{citation|editor-surname1= Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum|title= Under the skin: biological transformations in contemporary art |publisher=Hatje Cantz Publishers |publication-place=Duisburg|isbn=978-3-7757-9071-0|date=2001|language=English}} * {{citation|editor-surname1= Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie|title=Die ersten Acht, Ausstellungen der Jahre 1998 – 2002 im Pavillon Schloss Molsberg |publisher=Pavillon Schloss Molsberg |publication-place=Molsberg|isbn=3-00-009439-3|date=2002|language=German}} * {{citation|surname1=Susanne Acker |author2=Dorothy Nelkin|title=The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age|publisher=Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory|publication-place=Cold Spring Harbor|isbn=978-0879696979|date=December 2003|language=German}} * {{citation|editor-surname1= Burkard Leismann |editor2=Ralf Scherer|title=Diagnose Kunst - Diagnosis Art. Die Medizin im Spiegel der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Contemporary|publisher=Wienand|publication-place=Köln|isbn=978-3879099023|date=November 2006|language=German}} * {{citation|editor-surname1= Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków|title=Medicine in Art|publisher=Ohne Verlagsangabe|publication-place=Krakau|isbn=978-83-62435-47-0|date=2016|language=German}} * {{cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Heather |editor1-last=Meidav |editor1-first=Edie |editor2-last=Dropkin |editor2-first=Emmalie |title=Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2019 |chapter=The Life of Stuff |isbn=978-1625344236 |pages=176–183}} * {{citation |publisher=Kunstverein Augsburg e.V. |title=Heather Sheehan: Photographic Works 2012–2015 |publication-place=Augsburg |date=2021 |isbn=978-3-00067231-6}} * {{cite book |publisher=Milton Art Bank |title=Heather Sheehan: Sharpless Margaret. The Ledger of. |place=Milton |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-73318-404-5 |language=English}} * {{cite book |last1=Buhmann |first1=Stephanie |title=Rheinland Studio Conversations: Fünfzehn Frauen sprechen über Kunst (The Green Box Text) |trans-title=Rhineland Studio Conversations: Fifteen women talk about art (The Green Box Text) |publisher=The Green Box |place=Berlin |year=2021 |isbn=978-3962160128 |language=German}} * {{cite book |editor=Sölring Foriining |publisher=Kettler |title=Heather Sheehan: Sylta, the Whaling Widow who wails |place=Dortmund |year=2024 |isbn=978-3-98741-100-7 |language=German, English}}
== External links == * {{Official website|https://heathersheehan.com}} * {{DNB-Portal|120482207|NAME=Heather Sheehan}} * [https://artfacts.net/artist/heather-sheehan-1961-us Heather Sheehan at artfacts.net] * [https://daultondickey.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/an-interview-with-performance-artist-heather-sheehan/ An Interview with Performance Artist Heather Sheehan by Daulton Dickey]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Heather}} Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:American installation artists Category:20th-century American artists Category:American performance artists Category:21st-century American women photographers Category:21st-century American photographers Category:20th-century American women sculptors Category:20th-century American sculptors Category:21st-century textile artists Category:Women textile artists