Untitled, from Heidi 2

1999

American, born 1973

American, born 1968

Untitled 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).

Chromogenic print

30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm)

Gift of the ContemporaryArtProject, Seattle

2002.16

Not currently on view

Resources

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.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM