Untitled, from Heidi 2

Date1999

Maker Sue de Beer American, born 1973

Maker Laura Parnes American, born 1968

Label TextUntitled from Heidi 2 is a photographic still from a collaborative video project by contemporary Los Angeles artists Sue de Beer and Heather Parnes. Described by the two as an "unauthorized sequel" to the art video Heidi, made in 1992 by Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley, the video by Parnes and de Beer also synthesizes the traditional children's story with the violence of films like the cult classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In mixing unlikely genres, de Beer and Parnes interject ambiguity into the image: the still shows a woman's face obscured by a Charlie Brown mask, and deliberately leaves unanswered the question of whether she is a human being (fact) or a mannequin (fiction).

Object number2002.16

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM Collects: ContemporaryArtProject, Dec. 21, 2002 - Apr. 6, 2003 Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Modern in America, July 8, 2004 - Feb. 27, 2005 Published ReferencesYoung, Tara, "SAM Collects: ContemporaryArtProject" 2002, Seattle Art Museum, 2002, pg. 42. Love, Kate Random. “Oh Mother Where Art Thou? Sue de Beer’s Hysterical Orphan Girls.” In Grant, Catherine, and Lori Waxman, eds. Girls! Girls! Girls! in Contemporary Art. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2011: pp. 125-145.

Credit LineGift of the ContemporaryArtProject, Seattle

Dimensions30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm)

MediumChromogenic print