Oliver Herring

Oliver Herring was born in Germany in 1964. He received his BFA from Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford in painting and his MFA, in 1991 from Hunter College in New York. Oliver produces work through performance, photography, video, and sculpture. In Oliver's earlier works, he knitted silver Mylar and plastic tape honoring the memory of drag performer, Ethyl Eichelberger, who committed suicide in 1991. Oliver chose knitting because it's traditionally a female activity and also for the process which reflects the passage of time. This form of knitting turned into a performance piece, in which in sat in the gallery in a rocking chair and knitted life-size garments.


Oliver than moved onto combining photography with sculpture. He would ask strangers on the street if they would model for him and let him make polystyrene cast and photograph every inch of their bodies. He would then cut the photographs into tiny pieces and affix them onto the cast resembling the real person.







He then moved onto performance and video through which, he again used strangers as his models and photographed them after hours of spitting food coloring onto their faces. He would photograph them until they reached exhaustion, capturing the intensity of that moment which became an abstract painting. This series of photographs art titled "Spitting". After photographing his models he would then take all the photographs and turn them into still video images.


Oliver uses strangers as his models because he like the unexpected and unpredictable encounters. He never uses a script, but allows his models an impromptu dialogue between the two strangers. He likes to explore their personalities through art and capturing their experience of the moment on film created fragmented videos.

Questions:

a. What is the artist's inspirations?

He's inspired by the idea of taking complete strangers and making them interact with each other without the use of a script and allowing them to act on an impulse and letting their personalities evolve on film. He likes the chance encounters. He also likes to use minimal technology and making it something that is much bigger and better than technology. He's making art look as though his didn't use any technology.

b. What medium was the artist trained in?

He studied painting in his BFA and then in his MFA, sculpture, photography and video.

c. What medium is the artist currently using?

He is currently using performance along with photography and turning it into sculpture or movement-based videos.

d. Why do they do "New Media"?

He is pushing the realm of photography and turning it into life-size sculptures or video. He's taking what is considered "Fine Art" and enter-twining with technology which is New Media.

e. How has the computer impacted the artist?

He's using the computer to create videos.

How does this artist fit into New Media for me?

I like the way he photographs people and turns it into a sculpture or video, but get very minimal, low budgeted technology. He makes it looks like he's not using any type of technology, but yet very complex.

What moves you about this artist?

The notion of taking a picture of someone spitting and creating as if he merely painting an abstract painting. I'm very intrigued by the fact that he using only strangers for his models and that the dialogue is completely impromptu. What is the chance of that happening now days, with how people trust each other, let alone a stranger.

What surprised you about he artist?

The one thing that surprised me, was that he used knitting as a way to create sculpture. Here he's taking a traditional form of sewing and turning it into art that is exhibited in well known galleries. Would you see a scarf knitted out of yarn exhibited in a gallery in New York and get recognition?

What has disappointed you about this artist?

I don't have any disappointments. I'm very interested in this artist and found that his human sculptures inspired me to create something that not the norm for me.

How has this artist changed your view on New Media?

I think it gave me another perspective on how I can incorporate my photography into sculpture or creating a video.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/herring/index.html#

http://hyaku.pair.com/~maxpro/main.html?id=8

http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/herring.asp

A Little About Me and My Work

As previously mentioned, I graduated from Herron about 3yrs. ago with a fine arts degree in photography and a minor in furniture design. I spent 4yrs studying to become a photographer, for which I began to questioned during my senior year. During those 4yrs, I struggled with the notion of how society had influenced me as an artist as well as a woman and also how to find my voice through my work. Most of my frustration and anger was from the feeling of being constricted within my program and not being able to incorporate other mediums into my photo work. I also was very frustrated with the fact that I felt as though I had to prove my "Worthiness" to Herron that I was truly an artist and that I belonged there.

In the beginning, my work was about how society viewed the female body and how women throughout history had deformed themselves to fit into this idea of "Standard Beauty". I too struggled with this preconceived idea that I had to fit into society's "Standard of Beauty".

I began to use myself as the model to express my feelings of how I felt society pressured me to look a certain way. In today's society, we are so bombarded by the media and advertisement, that we become programmed to being obsessed about physical appearances. If you didn't fit within that excepted appearance, then you don't really fit into society. I was really intrigued by this, so I began to explore how to express this through my work.

After using just myself and some colored lights, I began to add props into the scene. One of the more interesting assignments was to take a previous project from our black and white class, and create it in color. So I chose to redo the the "7 Deadly Sins"

The very last photographic project I did using myself was of a series of images depicting 2 very different characters that had to get ready for their day using the guidance of magazines advertisements to apply beauty products and clothing. This series is title "Miss. Molly and Holly".

It wasn't until towards the end of my junior year that I began to really hate using myself as the model and what I was trying to communicate through my work. I felt as thought I had beaten to death the idea of beauty, but I was really interested in this subject matter, so I had to come up with another way of creating this without the use of the darkroom and photographic paper. I wanted to do something that no other photo student was doing. During this time I began to experiment in the darkroom. I began to combine multiple negatives together to create one image and also taking pictures with a pinhole camera. The pinhole image is titled: "This Life is More Than A Read Through".

I really loved making pastel drawings of the human figure, so I wanted to push the boundaries of my drawing skills and also the acceptance in the photo program that you can show something else other than a flat piece of paper that had chemicals on it to create an image.

I had decided to make a 5 foot drawing from a piece created in the 15th century by one of the "Master Artists", titles "Vesalius". The concept was to combine 3 main deformities of the body that have been emphasized throughout history and place them on top of this figure that was once considered to be the ideal body. The 3 deformities were: the corset, foot binding, and neckrings that were printed onto transparencies. The idea was really great, but the actual piece was not successful because of the transparencies.

After creating this image, I began to think of another way to make this a successful piece. I thought the idea was really great and that I was onto something, so during my senior year I began to experiment with other forms of photography. I was really tired of making a flat image that you put into a frame and hang it on the wall. I found that this was very boring and that this way of making an image had no life to it and it didn't have a way of communicating.

I knew for my senior year I was no longer going to create a photograph, rather an image transfer onto a surface. I began to experiment with fabric and photo transfers with an early photographic process called cyanotype print or "Blueprint". It uses the sunlight to expose the image onto your surface. I then placed a sculpture on top of the image, but the image was very light and the sculpture didn't come out very well also. So I used turpentine to do the transfers and placed the sculptures on top. Each sculpture was created with different materials to give them a more nature appearance. The feet were created with self-hardening clay and Barbie legs, the corset was created using a sheet of flexible metal and covered with fabric and the neckrings were created with gold wire. This piece is titled "Beauty's Sacrifice".

After graduating from school I hit a road block in my work and didn't created anything for 3yrs. It wasn't until I decided to return to school for my masters degree that I started to become inspired. I entered the New Media program last year and have really find something that I'm really passionate about. I know have something to grasp and build upon. I plan on entering the New Media Masters program in about 1-2 years.

My 1 "What If" Question

My "What If" question came from one of Beth's questions;

What If...You could talk to people who live in cottage cheese cottages?

I chose this question, because I thought it was an interesting question and because I love cottage cheese and immediately when I read it, I started to visualize this actual little cottage house made out of cottage cheese with a white picket fence in front of the house. This cottage house is part of a small little village with all the houses made out of cottage cheese. The whole village is under this glass dome, which is very cold to keep the cottage cheese from going bad, (because we all know that we don't want a stinky cottage cheese house). The village developed a way to build the houses using a secrete mixture of cottage cheese. To talk to the people in the village you would have to go inside this glass dome.

1. One of the practical limitations would be making a glass dome big enough to fit a small village inside. Also, they would have to come up with a way to keep the dome very cold and how to keep the cold from escaping from the dome.

2. There's no logic to my answer. I just purely imagined it.

3. I not sure what could lead from my answer.

4. If people can see what I visualized through my answer then that's OK. If people think I'm a little wacky, for my answer that's fine also. The answer is purely for me. If people get it, I have no feelings one way or the other.

5. As for my final project, I'm not really sure if that helped me or not. I'm a completely visual person, and I tend to get immediate visuals from something I read, see, or hear. I'm not sure if it will help in the future with other projects I create. I think I will always be a visual person and the way I answered the question is very much how I create projects, off beat or kind of wacky.

"My Bliss"--In-class lab assignment

My bliss was going home and brainstorming on several ideas I had for a few projects. When I got home, I got out all of my art materials and began to brainstorm. I have this really big roll of blank canvas that has been sitting in my closet and I've been wanted to do something with that. I thought maybe about using some of the photos that I torn up of my work and gluing them or photo-transferring onto the canvas and then painting on top of the photos and adding other textural elements to it, like the large painting in the IMA done by Sam Gilliam. I began to look through some of my art books and collage books and went from there for inspiration. The painting will begin after classes are over do to my Bust project.

50 What Ifs...

1. The world was shaped like a triangle instead of a sphere?
2. There was no such thing as a disease?
3. Evil never existed?
4. There was no pain?
5. I could see my grandparents one last time?
6. There was no such thing as obsession with physical appearance?
7. Having no fear of death?
8. There was no fear of aging?
9. Money was no option?
10. You only had one day to live?
11. Everybody had fun like when they were little?
12. There were no worries like when people were kids?
13. Being a kid again,... oh wait a minute I'm a kid, scratch that one.
14. I was better academically?
15. Having no fears?
16. I never worried about what people think?
17. Never having a rear growing disorder when I was a kid?
18. Laughing once a day was mandatory?
19. Health insurance was given to everybody without breaking their pockets?
20. Having something cool to say?
21. Being more vocal?
22. Everybody was given a 2nd chance?
23. I was 2 inches taller?
24. Living to be 100,...oh I already plan on it, scratch that one too than.
25. Finding time and money to go on a really long vacation?
26. Gas went back down to only $1.89?
27. People could see each other from country to country?
28. Being able to find shoes that don't light up?
29. Jelly shoes were back in style?
30. The government really cared about the educational system?
31. Doing away with the "No Child Left Behind" policy?
32. Never having a test again?
33. Going through orientation was really fun?
34. Never going to another job interview?
35. Teachers were payed more than the government?
36. Good teachers could find a job in Indiana?
37. I learn to let go?
38. I didn't fear rejection?
39. I spoke my mind?
40. Never being shy?
41. Having no sense of time?
42. Inventing something really cool?
43. Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, and Paris Hilton would fall off the face of the earth?
44. There was no such thing as a celebrity?
45. News reporters would report about actual events that are happening throughout the world rather than about events that occur in celebrity lives?
46. Breaking news was not about someone jumping into the Pope mobile?
47. Everyday was 80 degrees, sunny, without humidity?
48. No such thing as bad weather?
49. You could travel-time?
50. Money grew from trees?