Friday, October 17, 2008

Oliver Herring (Melissa's Pick)

I have chosen Oliver Herring as my artist for this week. Some of his more recent work(2005) is a combination of photography and sculpture. Herring takes a model, who is the majority of the time a stranger, and photographs them from all angles. He then creates a styrofoam sculpture and collages pieces of the photographs onto the styrofoam, recreating the model. In doing this Herring is taking a 2D material and turning it into a 3D object. This reminds me of Chris' pick a few weeks ago, Julian Beever. While Beever's work still remains in the 2D form, it certainly is transcending it's 2D limitations in creating the illusion of being 3D.
I really enjoy the detail of this work. I find it a very unique and transcending way to work with photography and collage as mediums.

Links:
Herring on Art21
Profile on Max Protetch Gallery Website
Art21 YouTube Video

2 comments:

Cory said...

This is really cool. I can tell that I am only able to appreciate a small part of the awesomeness of these through the pictures. I wonder how accurate the styrofoam base has to be to create such a realistic figure, it seems that the photos would do a lot to help your mind fill in the gaps.

Jessica Wolf said...

I think these sculptures are totally amazing. I love the idea of taking a 2D photograph and collaging it to create a 3-dimensional sculpture! I thin kthe photos give the sculpture a very different and interesting look as compared to a painted realisic sculpture. I'd love to get close to one of these and see it from all angles.