heather sheehan

heather sheehan

  • hello
  • artist statement
  • intro
  • selected works
  • current works
    • visual-verbal works
      • Sylta, the Whaling Widow Who Wails
      • One Woman, One Stone
      • Sharpless, Margaret
      • burlap poem video
      • 2021 box edition
      • live readings
      • installed texts
    • b & w photography
      • monograph
      • Self Portrait with Ear to Future & Past
      • In Muddier Years
      • Island- Burying the Dead
      • Washday on the River
      • Farm
      • Institutional
    • video + performance
    • textile installation + object
    • stitched drawings
    • on paper
  • earlier works
    • intro text
    • textile installation + object
    • on paper
    • photography
    • video + performance
  • about
    • biography en + de
    • interview texts
    • wikipedia english
    • wikipedia deutsch
    • cv
    • publications
    • videography
  • contact
suffocating skin, 2008
an action not to be repeated
Alone in my atelier with my dog, I drenched an expanse of knit nylon textile in petrolium jelly. I rolled my unclothed body in the greased textile and took these self portraits to document my actions. I remained in this cocoon until the dog began to bark. She was aware of the danger and panicked before I. My body was going into shock. With no pores open to breath, my skin had begun to suffocate like a water bird on an oil slicked beach.

A hot bath with dish washing liquid was my escape.

photos: self portrait


Copyright Heather Sheehan, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Authors and Photographers.