JOE SHEEHAN Other Stories Stone Works: 2002-2012 25 August - 25 November 2012 PATAKA ART + MUSEUM
JOE SHEEHAN Other Stories Stone Works: 2002-2012 25 August - 25 November 2012 PATAKA ART + MUSEUM Curated by Helen Kedgley
INTRODUCTION Pataka is delighted to present Joe Sheehan s first survey exhibition, bringing together fifty sculptural objects from the past ten years of his practice. Sheehan has fashioned a unique identity for himself creating work which explores the contemporary relevance of stone carving in New Zealand. His exquisitely carved, carefully considered pieces beautiful replicas of everyday objects in stone engage with the classic tradition of stone sculpture, yet confound the usual expectations of the medium. His formal simplicity and visual understatement belie his work s technical virtuosity. Sheehan s body of work in the last decade has attracted considerable critical acclaim for its technical skill, which is always both eloquent and restrained, and for his repositioning of stone carving in a contemporary conceptual framework. He likes to surprise and amuse; his conceptually driven work is both engaging and provocative. The carefully chosen titles of his pieces are often playful, witty and irreverent. This survey also shows how his work has evolved in size and complexity from the domestic scale of his early pieces. His recent Words Fail, a large sculptural installation created from white Cararra marble, is his largest work to date. Sheehan is best known for his sculpture in pounamu. Prized for its rich colour and translucency, pounamu (New Zealand s nephrite jade, commonly known as greenstone) was used by Maori to make sacred objects, weapons and ornaments; contemporary greenstone carving in New Zealand has tended to replicate such traditional items. Sheehan says, A lot of contemporary carving is retrospective looking. I wanted my stuff to relate to the current social environment but also reference the particular way our carving industry has developed. 1 Following his study of contemporary jewellery at Unitec, Auckland, he wanted to expand the ways in which pounamu could be used, to challenge preconceptions about the stone. Sheehan s work inevitably connects with the long tradition of Maori jade and stone carving as well as the classical tradition of stone sculpture. Yet as a Pakeha carver, Sheehan did not feel constrained by the spirituality associated with pounamu. While I felt very privileged to be working with greenstone, I didn t want to be bound by its history. 2 He decided to explore its potential to tell more contemporary, bicultural stories. In some ways I am lucky that I stand outside of tradition, 3 he says. He began to use pounamu to create representational sculptures of everyday objects that explored the concept of illusion in art. He wanted stone carving to regain its potency and relevance as an art form today. When greenstone became difficult to source in New Zealand, Sheehan began working with jade imported from Russia, Canada, Australia and China. Recently he moved away from working exclusively in jade, such a rare and precious stone, to a range of other stones, including some of our most common greywacke and basalt. Although these are not conventional stones for sculpting, their weight, density and subtlety of colour appealed to him. This was a radical departure from his work in pounamu, but Sheehan found it liberating to work with materials that he describes as less loaded with cultural significance. Sheehan who enjoys the process of transforming such undervalued stones into works of art says, I was trying to find something beautiful in something completely overlooked. 4 His greywacke sculptures tend to be larger than his work in pounamu. Harder than most metals, pounamu is very labour-intensive and difficult to carve. According to Sheehan, stones like basalt and greywacke are softer but present just as difficult a technical challenge. Where Sheehan s work in pounamu is characterised by its luminescence, with stone he seeks to create light and shadow. The material dictates the way he carves. The everyday object presented as art lies at the heart of Sheehan s work. When Sheehan used to visit the Maori and Pacific galleries in the Auckland Museum as a child, he was drawn to the artefacts, the everyday objects. He liked what these well-worn, 2 3
handed-down pieces revealed about people s daily lives. I was always impressed by the utilitarian pieces in the museum. They seemed to convey more to me than anything else. 5 Today, Sheehan embraces as subject matter the commodities of contemporary material culture. Using stone to document life today, he re-makes objects that are similarly useful but very much of our time. He chooses those with layers of cultural and social meaning and presents them aesthetically like the archaeological display of artefacts in museums. The illustrations of artefacts grouped together in Elsdon Best s book The Stone Implements of the Maori are another source of inspiration. An impressive new work The Quick and the Dead was inspired by two things: an image of a set of second-hand television remotes for sale on TradeMe and the illustrations of stone adzes in Best s book. Carved in greywacke, Sheehan s television remotes recall the stone adzes he admired as a child. With extraordinary technical skill Sheehan transforms greenstone into sculptures that replicate instantly recognisable yet unremarkable domestic objects, things that are in everyday use scissors, ball point pens, safety glasses and keys. By choosing pounamu as his material he takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary both physically, with its luminous appearance, and culturally, with the emotional resonance of the stone s associations. Sheehan likes to disrupt preconceived ideas and expectations. He looks for things that you wouldn t expect to see carved in stone: paint tubes, records, batteries and even lightbulbs. A recent suite of sculptures was inspired by found objects: Mother, a greywacke version of a crushed plastic bottle was inspired by a milk bottle he found washed up on Makara Beach, while a bedraggled line of household rubbish bags on a street near his studio was the inspiration behind On My Way Home, his large-scale basalt sculpture of a black bag. Sheehan also has an eye for what will be interesting in the future. Fascinated by the speed with which today s technologies become outmoded, he critiques the planned obsolescence of consumer society the way so many household appliances are now designed to be discarded. Sheehan makes inventive and intriguing souvenirs of such rejects at the moment of their demise. In this way his work is concerned with the passage of time. I made a range of things pulled out of my daily life and froze them in time. 6 His stone television set, his pounamu cassette tape and his carousel filled with slide-shaped pieces of pounamu, are all such artefacts of the future. Sheehan s work also grapples with issues of global consumerism, environmental degradation and diminishing resources. While his more recent work critiques consumerism, ideas about the environment have clearly influenced his practice too. In his ironically titled work, Non-Rechargeable, a wall installation of a series of fake battery packs, Sheehan challenges the complacency of New Zealand s clean, green self-image. Sheehan s early work commented on the commercial jade industry that he was once part of. He questioned the authenticity and quality of souvenirs mass-produced for the tourist market, mostly cheap replicas of historical forms. Sheehan jolts the viewer with awkward questions. Why does contemporary greenstone carving still look like carvings found in museums telling nothing of its time and place? Why shouldn t greenstone tell our story today? Does contemporary greenstone carving need to limit itself to replicating these traditional objects? Can multiple cultural approaches to the use of greenstone co-exist and be respected? Reserve, a set of ingots carved in various hues of jade sourced from the South Island, Canada and Russia, comment on the value of jade and allude to the politicisation of pounamu as a valuable resource since its ownership was restored to Ngai Tahu in 1997. He adds, The greenstone my father was using which used to be found in relative abundance is not there any more. So Final Cut, a set of scissors that gradually morphs into the shape of native birds, was about using all the last slices of various bits of stone I had. 7 4 5
Carving remains Sheehan s lifelong passion. A master craftsman, his technical expertise is evident in the exquisite detail of his work. He pushes stone carving to the limits of his skill, transforming dense hard stone into a light, translucent material. Daily Bread, for example, is a wafer-thin, jade disc that looks like a 45rpm record, perforated by hundreds of angled holes, while Song Remains the Same is an exact replica of a plastic audiocassette carved in translucent jade and is a functional tape. Sheehan has a huge admiration for contemporary and customary carvers. He trained as a stone carver in his father s commercial carving studios in Rotorua and Queenstown and still uses the techniques he learned in that industry. Yet he constantly experiments with new techniques and incorporates new industrial technologies into his process. His sculptures have a highly manufactured aesthetic which he achieves by making use of precision and power tools and most recently a water-jet cutter. Sheehan says, I am trying to shift my work from something that is made to look like it is ancient into something that acknowledges the industrial nature of the process and the industry. 8 Sheehan has created his own unique style of contemporary stone sculpture in New Zealand. Over the past ten years his work has evolved from his translucently beautiful green pounamu objects to his precisely crafted black and grey stone objects, and on to his recent large-scale work in marble. Yet his work remains as fresh, restrained, intriguing and relevant as ever. 1. Virginia Were, Leaving the Lagoon, Art News, Autumn (2007), 87. 2. Kathryn Webster, Joe Sheehan Inspiring New Zealand, AA Directions, July 2011, http://www.aa.co.nz/membership/ aa-directions/features/joe-sheehan-inspiring-new-zealand/ 3. Joe Sheehan, personal communication, 15 June 2012. 4. Kathryn Webster, Joe Sheehan Inspiring New Zealand, AA Directions, July 2011, http://www.aa.co.nz/membership/ aa-directions/features/joe-sheehan-inspiring-new-zealand/ 5. Joe Sheehan, personal communication, 15 June 2012. 6. ibid 7. Virginia Were, Leaving the Lagoon, Art News, Autumn (2007), 87. 8. Joe Sheehan, personal communication, 15 June 2012. Helen Kedgley Senior Curator Contemporary Art PATAKA 6 7
BIOGRAPHY Education Joe Sheehan was born in 1967 in Nelson, New Zealand. The son of an American jade carver, Sheehan began carving jade in the 90s, working in his father s commercial carving studios in Rotorua and Queenstown. During this time he travelled internationally to source material, visiting nephrite jade deposits in Australia, Canada, Russia and China. After studying contemporary jewellery at Unitec, Auckland, Sheehan moved to Wellington and had his first major exhibition at Avid Gallery in 2004. The following year he had his first solo exhibition Limelight at Objectspace in Auckland. One year later Sheehan emerged as one of New Zealand s leading young contemporary artists when he was one of five inaugural recipients of an Arts Foundation New Generation Award. In 2008 he represented New Zealand at the 28th São Paulo Bienal in Brazil. Sheehan recently travelled to Antarctica on an Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship. Sheehan s work is held in private and public collections including Musuem of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Chartwell Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. He currently lives and works in a studio in Grey Lynn, Auckland. 1996 Diploma in Design (Jewellery) UNITEC, Auckland, New Zealand Awards 2010 Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship 2006 Inaugural New Generation Award, Arts Foundation, New Zealand 2003 Premier Award, Mana Pounamu, Greymouth, New Zealand Joe Sheehan Auckland 2012 Photograph, Jackson Laidlaw Joe Sheehan is represented by Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland 8 9
The Quick and the Dead 2012 (detail) argillite 200mm H x 45mm W x 20mm D PLATES 10
Bulb 2011 (Edition 5/6) nephrite jade, oxidised brass, electric cable & plug 115mm L x 65mm D Words Fail 2011 15 Carrara marble letters Dimensions variable
Record #1 2011 South Australian black nephrite jade 175mm D x 2mm H 470mm H x 360mm W (frame) Record #6 2011 Canadian nephrite jade (King Mountain) 175mm D x 2mm H 470mm H x 360mm W (frame) Reserve G9701 G97012 2011 New Zealand pounamu (Marsden & Arahura Rivers), Canadian nephrite jade (King Mountain, Cassiar Mountain)) & Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) 175mm L x 75mm W x 42mm H (each)
Shit Creek 2010 (detail) 24 stones from the Puketui River & wooden case with hand-made silver catches 920mm W x 190mm D x 65mm H (case) 83mm H x 26mm W x 16mm D (paint tubes)
Shhhhh 2010 Coromandel granite 360mm H x 360mm W x 360mm D Song Remains the Same II 2008 New Zealand pounamu (Haast), plastic spools & magnetic audio tape recording 80mm H x 110mm W x 15mm D
Mother 2008 greywacke 230mm L x 160mm W x 110mm D Conversation Piece 2006 New Zealand pounamu (Haast) 77mm H x 122mm D
JOE SHEEHAN - LIST OF WORKS Bangles x 2 2001 Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) Collection of John Sheehan, Hamilton Bulb 2011 (Edition 5/6) nephrite jade, oxidised brass, electric cable & plug Conversation Piece 2006 New Zealand pounamu (Haast) Collection of Annie & Peter Gascoigne, Hawkes Bay Daily Bread 2006 South Australian black nephrite jade in marine plywood case Final Cut 2006 five carved, hinged implements worked in Haast pounamu, South Australian black jade, Russian nephrite & Arahura River pounamu Collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Final Cut II 2008 New Zealand pounamu, South Australian black nephrite jade, Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) Private collection, Blenheim Keys 2012 New Zealand pounamu, Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain), Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains), South Australian black nephrite jade, sterling silver, whale bone & black maire Mono I 2010 black argillite & pine 23
Mono II VIII 2010 black argillite, basalt & pine Mother 2008 greywacke Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu Necklace 2002 Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) & Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) Private collection, Melbourne Necklace 2002 Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & sterling silver Collection of Liz Mitchell, Auckland South Australian black nephrite jade & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton New Zealand pounamu & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton New Zealand pounamu & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton New Zealand pounamu (Arahura River) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton New Zealand pounamu (Marsden River) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Collection of Ev Gardiner, Auckland Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Reynolds/Fogarty Collection, Auckland New Zealand pounamu & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton South Australian black nephrite jade & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Collection of Shea McBride, Wellington 24 25
Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & sterling silver: photography by Craig Potton Collection of Shea McBride, Wellington Record #1 2011 South Australian black nephrite jade Record #2 2011 New Zealand pounamu (Arahura River) Private collection, Rotorua Record #4 2011 Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) Collection of Andrew & Sheridan Harmos Record #6 2011 Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) Record #7 2011 Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) Remote Control 2007 South Australian black nephrite jade & Tibetan quartz Reserve G97007 2011 Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) Reserve G97008 2011 New Zealand pounamu (Marsden River) Reserve G97010 2011 New Zealand pounamu (Arahura River) Reserve G97012 2011 New Zealand pounamu Collection of Andrew & Sheridan Harmos, Auckland Safety Glasses 2004 New Zealand pounamu (Haast) & sterling silver Courtesy Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland Shhhhh 2010 Coromandel granite Shit Creek 2010 24 stones from the Puketui River & wooden case with hand-made silver catches Reserve G97001 2011 Canadian nephrite jade (Cassiar Mountain) Reserve G97002 2011 New Zealand pounamu Reserve G97006 2011 New Zealand pounamu Slide Show: Carousel II 2009 80 jade & New Zealand pounamu slides & slide projector Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2010 Accession no: C2005/1/38 Song Remains the Same II 2008 New Zealand pounamu (Haast), plastic spools & magnetic audio tape recording 26 27
Spending Time 2008 South Australian black nephrite jade in marine plywood case & brass hinge Collection of Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth Stationary Movement II 2012 New Zealand pounamu, Australian black jade & Russian nephrite jade Survival Kit 2006 New Zealand pounamu (Big Bay), Russian nephrite jade (Sayan Mountains) & South Australian black nephrite jade Collection of Alastair Carruthers, Auckland The Quick and the Dead 2012 basalt, argillite & greywacke Untitled 2009 greywacke Words Fail 2011 15 Carrara marble letters Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2011 Accession no:c2011/1/38.1-15 28 29
Solo Exhibitions 2011 Record 2009 Slide Show 2006 Clean Green FHE Galleries, Auckland, NZ 2005 Limelight Objectspace, Auckland, NZ 2004 Stonedog Avid Gallery, Wellington, NZ Group Exhibitions 2012 Five Years 2011 Local Knowledge The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ 2011 Shed Nelson Sculpture Trust, NZ 2011 Game On Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings, NZ 2011 Deeper Water 2011 Auckland Art Fair 2010 Call Waiting Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, NZ 2010 Sleight of Hand The Port Nelson Suter Biennale, Nelson, NZ 2010 Paper Scissors Rock 2010 Melbourne Art Fair Tim Melville Gallery, Melbourne, Australia 2009 AC/DC: The Art of Power Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ 2009 Black Market 2009 Auckland Art Fair 2008 In Shifting Light Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, NZ 2008 28th São Paulo Bienal São Paulo, Brazil 2008 Words & Pictures 2008 Goodman Suter Contemporary Art Project: The Maui Dynasty Nelson, NZ 2008 I Draw Solace 2007 New Nature Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ 2007 Control 2007 Coming Soon 2007 Te Tataitanga/Bind Together Southwest School Art+Craft, San Antonio, Texas, USA 2002 Greenstone Avid Gallery, Wellington, NZ Collections Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, NZ Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, NZ Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, NZ Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ RealArt Roadshow, NZ NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade 30 31
Published in August 2012 for the exhibition: JOE SHEEHAN Other Stories Stone Works: 2002-2012 at PATAKA ART + MUSEUM, Porirua 25 August - 25 November 2012 All text individual authors All artworks Joe Sheehan ISBN: 978-0-9582393-8-7 Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission. EXHIBITION CURATOR: Helen Kedgley PUBLICATION DESIGN: Stuart Forsyth PRINTING: Service Printers PHOTOGRAPHY: Kallan MacLeod pages 12-19; Joe Sheehan page 11, 20; Nick Barr page 21; Jackson Laidlaw page 9 Joe Sheehan is represented by: Tim Melville Gallery Auckland WWW.TIMMELVILLE.COM PATAKA Cnr Norrie and Parumoana Streets, PO Box 50 218, Porirua City, 5240, New Zealand, www.pataka.org.nz