Joe Sheehan originally trained as a jeweller and stone carver before expanding his practice to encompass large, floor-based stone carvings, such as,* Invisible City,* 2021. Sheehan’s work emerges from a range of traditions and influences, principally the Māori practice of pounamu carving, contemporary jewellery concepts and Western contemporary art. These form an amalgam from which he is able to forge a unique approach to the practice of stone carving.

For Sheehan, because he is Pākehā, his approach to the medium of stone carving is complex and he resolves this through emphasising the sculptural properties of the object in conjunction with the historical connotations of the material. He says, “No material is culturally empty or inert.” In the past, he has expressed this interest in material value and the idea of the object as a container for meaning through carving everyday objects. Echoing museum artefacts, objects such as light bulbs, cassette tapes and remote controls are carved from both the rare material of pounamu and more common stones like basalt and greywacke.

In his current series of sculptures, Sheehan has worked with large blocks of granite, basalt and argillite, and reflected on the commercial processes that are engaged in the quarrying and carving of the stone. The pieces draw from the history these materials have as building blocks of bygone eras. They are recovered foundation stones that have questions about the time and place bound into them. 

In* Invisible City,* 2021, a cluster of buildings appears to be emerging from the vast, uncut granite block. The buildings are like the sawtooth roof line of an industrial estate, their banality and simplicity in stark contrast to the power and majesty of the uncut rock. 

On a poetic level, this work speaks to the idea that a fossil is a memory trapped in stone. With this type of sculpture, Sheehan is excavating memories from his stone, seeking to make them permanent and to elevate a humble urban scene – this cluster of buildings – to the status of a monument. 

Invisible City, 2021 is located in the link space that connects the Reception Lobby with the Pinnacle Tower lifts.

Selected photography: Sam Hartnett. Images courtesy of the artist.