H. JENNINGS SHEFFIELD

Tethered
Archival Pigment Prints mounted on aluminum, Video installation (dimensions variable) 3 projectors and 2 channel sound

Throughout history, there have been many stereotypes regarding artists, more specifically, women artists. Part of this stereotype dictated that if you wanted to be a serious artist, you certainly could not have a family. Coming through my undergraduate school in the 1990s, I was extremely conscious of the majority of my faculty were male, and of the four female professors, all did not have children. As I entered graduate school in 2009 with a toddler, I was again confronted with all but one female faculty who did not have children. As a mother pursuing an MFA, I soon realized what I thought would be the burden of motherhood, actually held moments of inspiration and provided an opportunity to create new art.

It was during my MFA, struggling to find the balance between my commitments to family and my art-making practice, that I began to try and compartmentalize my life. Setting parameters as a way to control it--on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I would be an artist working in my studio, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, unable to afford daycare, I would stay home and be a full-time mother. This never worked. In comparison to past generations--where work and family life rarely converged, I soon realized the technology today causes our roles to constantly fold over on each other. This results in our lives becoming more confused, intermingled, and merged. Resulting in the performance of each individual role constantly being encroached upon by the demands of the other roles. Thus, creating the tethering effect my work embodies.

From 2011–2013, I created Tethered, documenting my life every 30 minutes over a 4-month period of time, as I performed my daily roles of artist, mother, student, artist, wife, and daughter. Tethered portrays what a two-hour period of time looks like during different days of the week. As unique as each two-hour interval is, certain consistencies also exist. The look and feel of a two-hour period in the morning versus a two-hour period in the afternoon convey a very different set of characters, circumstances, interactions, responsibilities, and roles. Once compressed, and as in real life, all the different interactions inevitably merge into a singular life experience.

 In 2018, I again created this body of work with the same parameters, along with a 3-video and 2-channel sound installation. The entire installation shows how the ebb and flow of a day changes over different days of the week, and how the rhythm and chaos of a particular time of day change over time. For instance, in 2011–2013 when the work was first created, my children were young and afternoons quiet. In 2018, they are older and their afternoon sports and academics make the afternoons the more chaotic time of day. In 2011, I was a graduate student working on my own set deadlines, today I am a tenured professor, and the demand on my life as an artist and academic has greatly increased. This work is more than just a record of my life, but a statement on time, and the tethering effect we all experience every day as we navigate our lives and different roles during different days of the week over a lifetime.