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