by Jennifer Schlesinger

I first met Sheilah Wilson when she was my cohort in art crimes at the Santa Fe Art Institute in the early 00’s. She was the Residency Director and I was the Assistant Director and we both taught Adjunct at the College of Santa Fe Photography Department. We mustered up many of the SFAI events in true Art Emergency fashion, and lived to tell the stories. In 2006, Sheilah moved on from that experience to focus on her own work, a combination of photography, installation and conceptual work. New Mexico is at a loss without her residence now, however she has left a legacy and earned a respectable award in doing so.

Sheilah received the Judy Chicago, Through the Flower, “Feminists Under 40” award in 2008 and was honored by presenting an exhibition at the Through the Flower, Belen, NM space in August, 2009.

Of the work she presented was, The Flight, a series which is a contemplation on the desire for, and impossibility of, achieving weightlessness. The series was completed between 2004-2007 in New Mexico, and was a way of inscribing herself into the landscape, while also proposing hypotheses on the transcendent state of flight. Flight never happens, but the pathos and poetry of the attempt remain.

Sheilah Wilson was born in Caribou River, Nova Scotia in 1975. She received her BA from Mount Allison University, BFA from NSCAD University and MFA from Goldsmiths College. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the CBC Aural Recall (2003), Nova Scotia Talent Trust (2004), Creative Capital Workshop (2006), Judy Chicago Through the Flower ‘Feminists Under 40’ award (2008) and Canada Council Travel Grant (2009). Her most recent solo show was ‘this is only one of the possible redemptions’ which was at the Judy Chicago Through the Flower Foundation from June-September this year (2009), as part of the ‘Feminist Under 40’ award. She is currently working on an interactive project ‘you are my favorite photograph’, and is Assistant Professor of Photography and New Media at Denison University.

You can view all of Sheilah’s work at her website at: www.sheilahannchenwilson.com