slumbering,
almost out of sight

For the past three decades Gregory Seán Sheehan has been working exclusively with mountain turf. A fascination and deep connection to this material ignited the desire to inquire more closely into this very ordinary and abundant medium.

Although Sheehan's œuvre would not be described as landscape painting in a realistic, geographical, pictorial, or historical sense, his work is nevertheless essentially related to the unique topography of the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.

The turf has been gathered from blanket-bogland in Ireland. Blanket bogs are not only large areas of self-regulating biotopes providing habitats for numerous animals, birds, insects and plants but also landscape in it’s most resilient and durable instance. Found mainly in northern hemispheres, undisturbed blanket bogs have been self-regulating entities for periods of up to twelve thousand years.

The general structural composition of this work tends to be reduced, alternating between horizontal and vertical sections of ascending and descending movements. The interaction between these movements are often kinetically interwoven and set in motion with various highly diluted solutions.

Referencing the layered accumulation of the source material, most of this work is structured horizontally. The working procedure is essentially rhythmical. Turf, which has previously been applied to the surface, generally serves as a substructure upon which an animated interaction between colour, form, and content evolves.

In accordance with the laws of gravity, complex and tightly woven rivulets of pigment cascade and intermingle over this substructure; elucidating the underlying form. The rhythmical vitality of the flow can be seen to evoke aspects of growth, depth, origin, time, and transformation.

The work might frequently bring the viewer to unfamiliar places, where concepts like “abstraction” tend to become, more or less ambivalent. »
work gallery

This short video Terra incognita was put together as a visual accompaniment to the exhibition of the same name – on show at the Kuenstlerhaus Goettingen, Germany in 2016. Music and audio: © David Begley, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

Born 1956 in Dublin, Ireland, Gregory Sheehan originally trained as a graphic-artist. Since relocating to Germany in 1981 – Sheehan has been based in Lower Saxony — working thirty years in the communications and design industry in the positions of graphic-designer, art-director and project manager.

In 2001, Sheehan decided to concentrate on the artistic side of his creative activities. His work has been exhibited in Germany and Ireland and is represented in both private and corporate collections. » exhibitions