W.H.O.A (Art’s Birthday) Heather Mullender-Ross

Each year on the 17th of January international communities of artists and organisations come together to celebrate ‘Art’s Birthday,’ declared by Fluxus artist Robert Filliou in his 1963 work Whispered Art History.

Filliou proposed that the 17th of January each year be considered a public holiday to celebrate the presence of art and creativity in our daily lives. To mark and celebrate Art’s 1,000,064th birthday, Preston based artist Heather Mullender-Ross will be giving a live reading of her letterpress project, W.H.O.A (Whispered History of Art). Examples of her project will be exhibited at The Harris from the 12 to the 24 January.  

W.H.O.A. (2026) is a mail art project comprising twelve typeset letters, screen printed and typeset envelopes and other printed ephemera. Each month Heather Mullender-Ross sends a letter to forty subscribers. Beginning in January 2026 and ending in December 2026, the project spanned a year. The letters are a potted history of encounters and events that have shaped her perspective on making art (for the good and for the bad). They directly reference passages from the 1963 Fluxus artwork Whispered Art History by Robert Filliou.   

Heather Mullender-Ross expands on Filliou’s original text by narrating her own personal experiences as a female art student, artist and lecturer – spanning the past twenty years.