Oliver Herring: Areas for Action

Areas for Action exhibits videos and still images captured at Oliver Herring’s live event that occurred in May 2016, hosted by the Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery. During the five-day participatory art event, Herring directed open-ended performances between volunteer participants. These volunteers engage with various materials like body paint, food dye, and glitter. Since 1998, Oliver Herring has focused his artistic practice on intensive collaborative encounters with volunteer participants.

Herring directs and documents these open-ended performances, involving a series of actions between groups of strangers. It is fun for all as people either participate or simply observe. Variations of Herring’s performance art have shown worldwide in a variety of venues and settings. Areas for Action was reviewed by the Boston Globe.