heather sheehan : visual works since 2012 : video + performance

A brief view of Heather Sheehan's opening performance for her solo exhibition in Paul-Clemen-Museum at The Institute of Art History, Bonn University, Bonn, Germany. Opening speaker: Prof. Anne-Marie Bonnet, Camera/Tone: Frank Norden.

SeamStress, © 2017, installation and performance
video documentation, 6:00 minutes

- a one week critical performance about the hierarchy of labor, trickle- down economics and the dignity of workers

In the attic of Schloß Plüschow, a theatrical one-woman workroom is staged. A hierarchy of tables is stacked against the logic and comfort of her labors. The SeamStress manufactures hessian/burlap work dresses like the one she herself wears. At the lowest table, she cuts the cloth. Loudly echoing in the vast room, her scissors bite through the stiff fibers. Then, she climbs perilously up to the top most table where one sewing machine, high in the air, takes center stage. There, she sits in the light of one lamp and sews. The machine rumbles, stops, starts again and again. With each completed dress, she climbs back down to wash and hang it. The new work dresses drip, dry and shrivel on the line. The results of her labors fill the lines to her left and right with dresses for an army of absent workers.

waterline/receding from Heather Sheehan on Vimeo.

‘waterline/receding’, performance documentation video, 5:12 minute, c. 2015 Heather Sheehan
Holbeinhaus, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
edit: Heather Sheehan, camera: Frank Baumann

The wall drawing, 'waterline' is transformed using water from the Lech canal which runs before the exhibition building. The illusion of woven cloth is transformed into an image of fluid water recalling the washing stage of textile manufacturing processes.

heather sheehan video + performance photo: Marko Petz

‘receding’ performance view, 2015
Holbeinhaus, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
photo: Marko Petz

The wall drawing, 'waterline' is transformed using water from the Lech canal which runs before the exhibition building. The illusion of woven cloth is transformed into an image of fluid water recalling the washing stage of textile manufacturing processes.

‘receding’ performance view, 2015
Holbeinhaus, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
photo: Marko Petz

The wall drawing, 'waterline' is transformed using water from the Lech canal which runs before the exhibition building. The illusion of woven cloth is transformed into an image of fluid water recalling the washing stage of textile manufacturing processes.

'alighting on the river' video
4'29'' © 2015 Heather Sheehan
camera: Lisa Voelter

heather sheehan video + performance Holbeinhaus, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany

'alighting on the river' installation view, 2015
4' 29'' video, c. 2015 Heather Sheehan, camera: Lisa Voelter
Holbeinhaus, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
photo: Marko Petz

Heather Sheehan alighting, 2015
14' 32 minute video documentation of the performance by Heather Sheehan juxtaposed with the opening speech by Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Bonnet, at the exhibition: 'alighting', Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany