Oliver Herring (born 1964 in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
) is an experimental artist based in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. His works include knitting
Mylar
BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and aro ...
, participatory performances,
styrofoam
Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), commonly called "Blue Board", manufactured as foam continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and water barrie ...
photo sculptures and
video
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
.
Biography
Herring as born in Heidelberg Germany in 1964. He earned his BFA at
The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art
The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division.
History
The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...
,
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. He went on to
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
in New York where he got his MFA.
Work
Oliver Herring started his art career as a painter with very colorful and expressive works. When
Ethyl Eichelberger
Ethyl Eichelberger (July 17, 1945 – August 12, 1990) was an Obie award-winning American drag performer, playwright, and actor. He became an influential figure in experimental theater and writing, and wrote nearly forty plays portraying women ...
committed suicide in 1991, Herring started
knitting
Knitting is a method by which yarn is manipulated to create a textile, or fabric. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Knitting creates stitches: loops of yarn in a row, either flat or i ...
Mylar to pay respect to him. Herring knit the transparent tape into colorless human figures, clothing and furniture. When they were on display, he chose the Mylar clothing to be hung or placed in a way that it looks like the shape they would be if worn.
Performance video art
Herring moved from knitting Mylar to video and participatory performances in 1998. His videos were primarily
stop motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
. When he was sitting in his knitting chair for hours on end, knitting, his mind would wonder and his stop motion videos expressed his thoughts. In his video ''Exit'', he starts out in his knitting chair, than through stop motion he bounds out of it in a flight of fancy. He flies from his chair into the air in a jerky movement. The next scene he has long white hair, still flying through the air.
In the participatory performances he replaces himself with his friends and strangers to star in the videos. He incorporates stop motion video in these as well. Herring cared more about the process then he did about the medium which is why his video was not high quality and his stop motion was jerky.
Herring does not like the term act or actor because he believes the people end up contributing to his art and it becomes a collaboration. Herring said “I don’t think of the people I work with as models or actors. They are people who are willing to sacrifice their time for me.”
BS
One of his most famous experiments is Spitting Food Dye, similar to Spit Reverse. These experiments consists of strangers he found who would dress in a white shirt, black pants and spit
food dye
Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food ...
out of their mouths into the air and back on their faces. After hours of this, they were tired with dye all over their faces, he would
photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
them. He would repeat this with different people. The photographs would be placed on display, where people are able to compare them next to each other.
Photo sculpture
For the
Styrofoam
Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), commonly called "Blue Board", manufactured as foam continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and water barrie ...
Photo sculpture, Herring starts with a polystyrene base and pastes thousands of cut up photographs to the base. “Gloria”, one of his most famous sculptures, is of a girl leaning against a wall in a colorful flower dress holding her necklace. Herring took pictures from every angle of her and he cut and pasted them on the base to form the sculpture.
TASK parties
Beginning in 2002 Herring organized a series of participatory improvisational art events known as
TASK parties.
To find an interview with Herring discussing his personal thoughts o
TASK
References
External links
*Art:21 -Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 3. DVD. Oliver Herring. Art:21, 2005.
*"Oliver Herring , Art21 , Preview from Season 3 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" (2005)." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Jan. 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.
.
* "UMSL: Oliver Herring Talks about TASK." YouTube. YouTube, 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herring, Oliver
1964 births
Living people
20th-century German sculptors
20th-century German male artists
German male sculptors
21st-century sculptors
Artists from New York (state)
Artists from Heidelberg
German video artists
Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art