Heather Sheehan
American artist (born 1961)
Heather Sheehan
Self-portrait 2016, With an Ear to the Past (black and white photography)
Born (1961-12-09) December 9, 1961 (age 64)
Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Known forInstallation, Performance, Black and White Photography, Video art, Sculpture
MovementPerformance art, video art, fiber art
SpouseIvo Ringe
Websiteheathersheehan.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.[1]

Sheehan studied at the Parsons School of Design and the New School of Social Research in New York.[2] 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.[1]

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.[1]

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.[3] 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.[4] 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)[5]

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.[6] The key ingredient, milk, was not supplied. The exhibition opened following a week of World Food Programme airdrop assistance to Afghanistan.[7]

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.[8][9]

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.[10] 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.[11]

SeamStress

Inspired by her annual stays (2012-2023) at the historic manor house, the Mecklenburg Artists’ House, Schloss Plüschow, Germany,[12] 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."[13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

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.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17]

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.”[18]

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;[3] Under the Skin - Biological Transformations in Contemporary Art, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany;[4] alighting, Kunstverein Augsburg, in Augsburg, Germany;[19] Heather Sheehan: Visitors and other beings, Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg, Germany und Stadtmuseum Beckum, Beckum, Germany;[8] Sharpless, Margaret, Milton Art Bank, Milton, PA;[14] and Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails, die Walfängerwitwe, die weint, Sölring - Sylt Museum & Old Frisian House, Keitum, the island of Sylt, Germany.[16]

Sheehan’s art is collected by notable institutions including Kunstmuseum Bonn,[20][21] Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków,[22] Poland; and Stadtmuseum Siegburg,[23] Germany. Germany. Sheehan’s artist books are included in the library collections of the Yale Library,[24] the James Baldwin Library and the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne.[25]

Awards

  • 2015 - 2016 MacDowell Colony Colony Fellowship, United States[26]
  • 2017 Guest artist at Schloss Plüschow, Germany[27]

Videography (selection)

  • 1995: Performance: On Pink, 18′ 02″
  • 1999: Single Opening,[28] 08′ 15″
  • 2003: Performance: Each&Every, 04′ 21″
  • 2015: Performance: Alighting on the River,[29] 14′ 32″
  • 2015: Performance: Waterline/Receding,[30] 05′ 11″
  • 2018: Performance: I shot myself in Augsburg,[31] 01′ 07″
  • 2019: Burlap Poem video (2012–2019),[32] 11′ 57″
  • 2021: Hers is a Story,[33] 04′ 06″

References

  1. ^ a b c Buhmann, Stephanie (2021). Rheinland Studio Conversations: Fünfzehn Frauen Sprechen Über Kunst (in German). Berlin: The Green Box. pp. 50–64, 223, 230. ISBN 978-3-96216-012-8.
  2. ^ Unter der Haut (Katalog) (in German). Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum. 2001. p. 133.
  3. ^ a b Sheehan, Heather; El-Danasouri, Andrea; Kümmel, Birgit (1997). Made for Arolsen (in English and German). Museum Bad Arolsen. ISBN 3-93093003X.
  4. ^ a b Under the Skin: Transformations of the Biological in Contemporary Art. Duisburg: Hatje Cantz and Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum. 2001. p. 54. ISBN 978-3-7757-9071-0.
  5. ^ "Sheehan, Heather via the MOCAK online collection database". en.mocak.pl. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  6. ^ Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, ed. (2003), Soulfood (in German), Köln: Kunstraum Fuhrwerkswaage, ISBN 978-3930636518
  7. ^ "WFP Emergency Report No. 11 of 2003 - Afghanistan | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. 2003-03-14. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  8. ^ a b Gesing, Martin; Caspary, Gundula (2011). Heather Sheehan, Visitors and other beings. Verlag nicht ermittelbar.
  9. ^ Röhrig, Jürgen (6 April 2011). "Ausstellung - Schön wie ein alter Elefant". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  10. ^ Birnbaum, Daniel (2005-06-01). "Harald Szeemann". Artforum. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  11. ^ "Mit Performance, Installation, Fotografie und Zeichnung gestaltet die amerikanische Bildhauerin Heather Sheehan die Ausstellung 'alighting' im Kunstverein Augsburg". a3kultur.de (in German). 19 August 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  12. ^ Ostsee-Zeitung (2025-11-04). "Ostsee-Zeitung - Aktuelle Nachrichten aus MV". www.ostsee-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  13. ^ Daulton, Dickey (December 2019). "An Interview with Performance Artist Heather Sheehan" (PDF). iCompendium.
  14. ^ a b "Heather Sheehan". Milton Art Bank. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  15. ^ a b Sheehan, Heather (2021). Sharpless, Margaret, The Ledger of. MAB Books. p. 176. ISBN 9781733184045.
  16. ^ a b Rehrmann, Marc-Oliver (2025). Als die Norddeutschen noch auf Walfang gingen. NDR. 17.
  17. ^ Sheehan, Heather (2024). Sylta: the Whaling Widow who Wails. Dortmund: Verlag Kettler. ISBN 9783987411007.
  18. ^ "Sölring Foriining Jahresbericht 2024" (PDF). soelring-foriining.de. 2024-07-28. p. 34.
  19. ^ Bonnet, Anne-Marie; Honnef, Klaus (2021). Heather Sheehan, photographic works 2012-2015 (in German and English). Augsburg, Germany: Kunstverein Augsburg e.V. ISBN 978-3-00-067231-6.
  20. ^ "Heather Sheehan". www.ecosign.de. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  21. ^ "Heather Sheehan". artfacts.net. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  22. ^ "Heather Sheehan". MOCAK (Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow). Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  23. ^ "Ausstellungsarchiv – 2010 bis 2019". Stadtmuseum Siegburg. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  24. ^ Sheehan, Heather (2024). Heather Sheehan : Sylta : the whaling widow who wails = Die Walfängerwitwe, die weint: (Yale Library Catalog). Dortmund: Verlag Kettler. ISBN 978-3-98741-100-7.
  25. ^ "KunstBibliothek Köln online catalog". www.kubi-koeln.de. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  26. ^ "Heather Sheehan". Macdowell.org. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  27. ^ "Gastkünstler 2017" (in German). Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  28. ^ "Heather Sheehan: Single Opening". vimeo.de. 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  29. ^ "Heather Sheehan: Alighting". vimeo.com. 2015-08-15. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  30. ^ "Heather Sheehan: Waterline/Receding". vimeo.com. 2015-09-14. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  31. ^ "Heather Sheehan: I shot myself in Augsburg". vimeo.com. 2018-11-28. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  32. ^ "Heather Sheehan: Burlap Poem video (2012–2019)". vimeo.com. 2019-08-26. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  33. ^ "Hers is a Story". youtube.com. 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2022-02-17.

Further reading

  • Klaus Honnef; Brigitte Schlüter; Barbara Kückels, eds. (1994), Die verlassenen Schuhe. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Rheinischen Landesmuseum Bonn vom 5. November 1993 bis 30. Januar 1994 [The abandoned Shoes. Catalog for the exhibition at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn from November 5, 1993 to January 30, 1994] (in German), Berlin: Edition Braus, ISBN 978-3894660833
  • Andrea El Danasouri (1997-01-01), Heather Sheehan - Made for Arolsen. Katalog zur Ausstellung (in German), Bad Arolsen: Museum Stadt Arolsen, ISBN 978-3930930036
  • Johannes Bilstein; Ursula Trübenbach; Matthias Winzen, eds. (1999), Macht und Fürsorge: Das Bild der Mutter in zeitgenössischer Kunst und Wissenschaft (in German), Köln: Oktagon, ISBN 978-3896110787
  • Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, ed. (2001), Under the skin: biological transformations in contemporary art, Duisburg: Hatje Cantz Publishers, ISBN 978-3-7757-9071-0
  • Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie, ed. (2002), Die ersten Acht, Ausstellungen der Jahre 1998 – 2002 im Pavillon Schloss Molsberg (in German), Molsberg: Pavillon Schloss Molsberg, ISBN 3-00-009439-3
  • Susanne Acker; Dorothy Nelkin (December 2003), The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (in German), Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, ISBN 978-0879696979
  • Burkard Leismann; Ralf Scherer, eds. (November 2006), Diagnose Kunst - Diagnosis Art. Die Medizin im Spiegel der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Contemporary (in German), Köln: Wienand, ISBN 978-3879099023
  • Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, ed. (2016), Medicine in Art (in German), Krakau: Ohne Verlagsangabe, ISBN 978-83-62435-47-0
  • Sheehan, Heather (2019). "The Life of Stuff". In Meidav, Edie; Dropkin, Emmalie (eds.). Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 176–183. ISBN 978-1625344236.
  • Heather Sheehan: Photographic Works 2012–2015, Augsburg: Kunstverein Augsburg e.V., 2021, ISBN 978-3-00067231-6
  • Heather Sheehan: Sharpless Margaret. The Ledger of. Milton: Milton Art Bank. 2021. ISBN 978-1-73318-404-5.
  • Buhmann, Stephanie (2021). Rheinland Studio Conversations: Fünfzehn Frauen sprechen über Kunst (The Green Box Text) [Rhineland Studio Conversations: Fifteen women talk about art (The Green Box Text)] (in German). Berlin: The Green Box. ISBN 978-3962160128.
  • Sölring Foriining, ed. (2024). Heather Sheehan: Sylta, the Whaling Widow who wails (in German and English). Dortmund: Kettler. ISBN 978-3-98741-100-7.
  • Official website
  • Literature by and about Heather Sheehan in the German National Library catalogue
  • Heather Sheehan at artfacts.net
  • An Interview with Performance Artist Heather Sheehan by Daulton Dickey
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