Owen Mitchell, Special to The Denisonian—

Sheilah ReStack, a professor in the Studio Art Department, is known for using videos and photography in her work, capturing feminist nature, motherhood,
and domestic life within queer families. She has worked at Denison since 2009, primarily teaching photography with the goal of using a camera as a tool to understand the world in new ways. Having won several awards for her visionary brilliance in both drawing and photography, her presence in the contemporary art scene can be felt in and outside of Denison.

On Sept. 7th, 2023, the Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) opened up its doors to display an exhibition that features several female artists in the Columbus area, including both Sheilah and Dani ReStack’s work. Each artist in the exhibit models their art to show domestic life as a place for the unexpected and how it’s constantly victim to reinvention. May You Choose Your Own Form of Recognition, 2021 – Ongoing, by Sheilah ReStack and Dani ReStack, displays just that in a beautiful combination of two mediums of art, Sheilah’s photos and Dani’s drawings. The piece is a bunch of gold leafed Polaroids that contain images of the little girl that Sheilah and Dani have fostered. Due to the nature of being a foster family, her image can’t be shown, but through the materials of their practice they display their love and allow for her to choose her own identity.

Sheilah stated, “It’s true that if you sometimes take the personal it can become universal.” This exhibit takes something personal and displays it vi
sually so that it can be felt universally. ReStack displays photography in a way one might never think of. She is capturing the shot and we never see it, yet we are experiencing it. By hiding the visuals of the photo and having Dani draw over the gold leaf, as a viewer, you can feel the intimate nature of a loving family.

Through a camera lens, ReStack is able to capture unexpected and intimate moments. This concept of showing the unexpected in an impactful way is something that transfers to ReStack’s teaching in photography. When speaking about the exhibit at Beeler, ReStack states“…one of the motifs that emerged is we all are professors, we all work in higher educa-tion.”

Professors from Kenyon and OSU attended, making this exhibit more than a showing of art and instead also a display of higher education. Anthem, rose in kitchen, ginkgo, Dani leg, Houses across the street, 2022 by Sheilah ReStack, is a series of photographs that stand and hang on concrete wedges. Another piece of art displayed at the Beeler gallery contains images that document lovers, horses, homes, and kitchen meals. As stated on the label of the piece in the Beeler Gallery “It is a fragile balance of materials with lines of viewing in and out of the structures
that hold us… Looking is a way of being held.” This piece goes beyond just being a photograph as it also takes the form of a sculpture that drags the viewer’s eyes. Changing how we view and feel the world around us, rupturing our understanding of narratives through visual practice. These pieces investigate the multifaceted relations in domestic life and stand as a beacon to how you can display art to showcase a meaningful narrative.

Professor ReStack has taken voyage on a remarkable journey in the art scene. As her transformative art has
become a blueprint to display the deeply personal as a universally touching narrative. From both her teachings and artistic contributions at Denison and outside, she reexamines photography not just as a means to capture moments, but as a medium that can showcase profound emotions and the intricacies of domestic life. Her recent exhibition announces that art can reveal obscure yet profound
truths about personal quarrels. In an era of ever-evolving-art, artists like ReStack stand as a pillar to art’s timeless ability to connect life through differences, express the indescribable, and invite a soul searching experience. Sheilah ReStack is a testament to the lasting mark of an artist who views the world not just with her eyes, but with her heart and soul.