The Art of Hyper-Realism: Joe Sheehan’s Stone Carvings
Gas cans, teacups, paint tubes, ballpoint pens, lightbulbs—these are ordinary objects that you might think you understand in terms of texture and feel. However, Joe Sheehan’s hyper-realistic stone carvings will challenge your expectations and leave you pleasantly surprised.
Consider a luminous green lightbulb, suspended from a typical brass fitting and electrical cord. Instead of being the fragile glass you would expect, it is meticulously carved from a single piece of hard, cold nephrite jade. The craftsmanship is astonishing, transforming a mundane item into a stunning work of art.
Another striking piece is a retro green cassette, skillfully sculpted from pounamu—the Māori term for several types of hard green stone found in New Zealand, including jade. If you were fortunate enough to find a working cassette player, you might be able to hear the soothing sounds of the Haast River, located on the western coast of New Zealand’s South Island, where this exquisite pounamu was sourced.
Mr. Sheehan, now 48, began his artistic journey as a young adult, crafting pounamu and other materials into jewelry and small items adorned with traditional Māori motifs for Mountain Jade, his father’s shop in Rotorua. This lakeside town on the North Island is renowned for its natural hot springs and rich Māori cultural experiences.
Reflecting on that time, Mr. Sheehan remarked, “It was a really interesting period in my life.” During an interview in February at his Auckland workshop, he was busy preparing eight large-scale pieces for an exhibition titled “Lost & Found” in the heart of the city. He continued, “This experience has greatly influenced my current artistic practice. I felt it was essential to avoid directly appropriating Māori design language, given my background as a Pakeha.” (Pakeha is the Māori term for New Zealanders of European descent.)
He fondly remembers, “The shop served as a repository of Māori artifacts, historical imagery, and information, almost like a small museum. We were behind glass, engaged in our craft, resembling a living anthropological exhibit.” This unique environment inspired him to create modern artifacts, everyday objects such as the pen and tape, that blend art with the familiar.
