All images and content © Artchicks 2022. I recognise and acknowledge NZ Ngāi Tahu a resilient, entrepreneurial people who made our home in Te Waipounamu (South Island) land on which I occupy. I recognise the Ngāi Tahu historical, spiritual, cultural and/or traditional relationship with the Rangitata River, Southern Alps and their mana and tangata whenua status. I also recognise the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nations as the traditional owners and continual custodians of the land at the Sydney National Art School. I pay respects to all elders: past, present, and emerging. I acknowledge that sovereignty to this land has never been ceded.

Curriculum Vitae (Fe Heffernan)

I create under a registered Trademark "ArtChicks"

CONTACT DETAILS

Phone: 0416650193

Registered Trademark with Intellectual Property Australia – Artchicks

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts Majoring in Sculpture, National Art School, Sydney 2022
  • Certificate in Creative Arts and Health, University of Tasmania 2018
  • Diploma in Project Management, ARA 2018
  • Cert IV Visual Arts & Cert IV in Health and Safety, ARA 2016
  • Red Cross Forced Marriage, Modern Slavery & Settlement Services certificate in Trauma-informed service delivery in Arts 2014
  • Harvard University Executive Leadership Women Program 2013
  • Human Rights Graduate Diploma Melbourne University 2009
  • Mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution, Notre Dame University 2001
  • Degree & Master’s in Resource Management, NZ 2000

EMPLOYMENT – Artist working in Dementia & Health Arts including Modern Slavery victims, forced marriage and human trafficking.

SELECTED GROUP WORK & EXHIBITIONS

2022

Collaborators and ambassador The Drawing Exchange (TDA) collaborated on the title ‘ site’ between Adelaide Central School of Art, NAS and the Maitland Regional Art Gallery (NSW). The site I worked at is the National Art School Drawing Gallery assisting Nadia Odlum.

The NAS Library Sculpture Show, National Art School.

Adelaide Biennale sculpture in bottles participant to be installed by Laith McGregor in SOS.

National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW Residency at Hill End with a group show curated by Luke Sciberras.

Collaborator NSW Architects Club Sculptural creation for a Stage Design.

Collaborator NSW Opera House Draw the House.

Collaborator Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Victoria – Who is Afraid of Public Space?

2021

National Art School Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition

Rosby Sculpture in the Gardens

Sculpture Exhibition Rayner Hoff Project Space

Cell Block Sculpture Exhibition National Art School

Sculpture Red Room Exhibition National Art School

Stone Carving Exhibition Methven NZ Summer School.

2020

Exhibition of paper sculptures as the Artist in Residence in Quarantine, Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland.

2019

Venice Biennale Participant.

A sculptural piece in a collaboration with the European Academy 2019 Gold Lion Venice Biennale winner, about climate change.

Finalist in the NT Wearable Arts.

2018

Participant in the Sydney Biennale – Our Songs 4C Art Gallery.

Artist Assistant to Zadok Ben –David in the Sculpture by the Sea and the Perth International Arts installation and Gallery invigoration, Australia.

Autumn Art School Sculpture and Poetry exhibition, Wanaka, NZ.

2017

The Big Draw with Youth Arts in the Hive Gallery (The Big Draw patron is Quentin Blake).

May Day Unions Installation in the Public Green Auckland NZ.

2016

Installation for Australians Against Trafficking in Humans installation Australia Lawns Parliament House Canberra.

2015

Big Brother Mouse Art Healing Circles in Lau Prabang, Laos.

Autumn Art School Sculpture and Writing exhibition, Wanaka, NZ.

2012

International Year of Reading Installation for ARA, NZ.

RESIDENCIES

2020

Artist in Residence in Quarantine Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland

2018

Central Craft Artist Residency, Northern Territory.

2010

Artist in Residence, University South Pacific.

COLLECTIONS

Works held in public and private collections.

Download CV

Artists Biography.

New Zealand-born Sculptor, Fe Heffernan, works with material-based sculpture. Her qualifications include Sculpture, Visual Arts, Health and Arts, Resource Management and Project Management.
Her professional experience includes her sculptural piece in a collaboration with the European Academy 2019 Gold Lion Venice Biennale winner about climate change.
Heffernan draws on her unique background as a National Conservation Coordinator and twenty years of environmental and community-based work. In particular, her experiences working at the intersections of health, nature and art have developed from her work in Dementia Arts.
D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s text on ‘Growth and Form’ is a major inspiration in her creative process through different mediums. Heffernan’s work deconstructs organisms and their forms, such as jellyfish, and shells. She transforms geometry in her creations. The work often materialises in kinetic forms that explore movement, composition, space, and reflections. She challenges the boundaries of traditional sculpture with her commitment to sustainable practices and utilising repurposed and recycled elements.
She has undertaken Art Residencies in the Pacific, NZ and Australia and her work is in collections in these countries.

 
 
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Artist Statement.

My work involves using found materials in unexpected ways to create sculptural forms with movement and light creating a variety of dancing shadow projections.

I enjoy the challenge of working with materials that can produce movement, shadow, light, shape, size, colour, and space combined in a series of shifting challenges.

I create these forms to express my fascination with nature due to my twenty years of environmental and community-based work.   I like to play with the perceptions of space and volume, encouraging viewers to question what they see.

My work deconstructs organisms and their forms, such as jellyfish or shells. I  am thinking about how to transform geometry in my creations. The work often materialises in kinetic forms that explore movement, composition, space, and reflections.

I have sought to encourage the viewer to consider the importance of sustainability and the ecological impact of artistic processes.

Contact Us

Please contact Artist for any queries and questions at info@artchicks.com.

Cross section

2022
Billboard stencil and paint

2022 As a Drawing Exchange Ambassador and Collaborator, National Art School

 
 
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October 2021  Day & Night Covering the Woolworths Building for Breast Cancer

2020 Between Art and Quarantine Playing Mrs Picasso  Paint,  Face paint, fake nails, coloured hair

2018 Artists Assistant to Zadok Ben – David
for the installation Blackfield and invigoration of the work.

2018 May Day Union collaboration for the Labour Trafficking tent and posters against Modern Slavery & Trafficking in Humans, NZ and Australia. All posters 3m x 2m in the tent & The quote size is collage with words 1m x 1m on the table.

2017 Modern Slavery and Forced Marriage Installation Parliament House Lawn, Canberra with the Group of  Religious against Trafficking in Humans. Multiples of Black Plastic Board, shapes of women and children with wire insertions at the base.

2017 The Big Draw with the Hive Gallery and Youth Arts for the UK Competition under the Patron Quentin Blake.

I explore how the arts can help to shift the focus in terms of what it means to have a diagnosis of dementia and the implications that this has on creative engagement and contribution.

When verbal communication is challenging, holding, and playing with creative movement items that engage a dementia sufferer even if only for a few minutes, offers a person a chance to be ‘in control’, express something about themselves and their mood.

Many people with dementia find new ways to communicate through music perhaps with their hands using maracas or singing along to their known music.

2022 Sustainable Waste Dementia project ( Up, Up and Away) reflects how the mind leaves a Dementia or Alzheimer’s patient.