A few weeks ago I stopped by the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art (PBICA) out of an obligation to see the Smiths exhibit (Tony, Kiki, and Seton, not Morrissey) and was rather unenthused. After viewing the exhibit, I felt a bit more educated, but not moved. As I entered the Media Lounge to see Oliver Herring’s Spit Reverse piece, I was not expecting much beyond the usual video art fare of loops and tiresome Warholesque meditations.

There was a bench at one wall for the viewers sit and three projections end to end on the opposite wall. I took a seat on the bench and became enthralled at the bizarre and beautiful videos that played out in front of me. The videos depicted segments of a scenario facilitated by Herring in which people dressed in white tops and black bottoms spewed water into the air and onto each other. Played back in slow motion, forward, reverse, and a various levels of focus it turned a crude or violent act into something graceful.

Spit Reverse, 2002
video still
dim. variable
© 2002, Oliver Herring

Herring’s interest in the quirks of group dynamics leads him to bring together strangers to see what happens when they interact. He often works with them over a few unscripted days. Herring has stated, “Sometimes a theme from one day of filming is elaborated upon during the next day, but mostly I deal with each day as a new opportunity to find something not anticipated before.” Legend has it, a man in a moment of horseplay during filming created the theme for Spit Reverse by spitting water in his brother’s face.

Herring watches people intently. He looks for patterns of behavior, reactions, and gestures. Once something surfaces from the general din of activity, he focuses in on that moment to create his video.

Reminiscent of Bruce Nauman’s Self-Portrait as a Fountain and Esther Williams’ movies, Herring’s video portrays slowly moving arcs and mists of water showering down on the participants like compliments instead of impertinent gestures. Occasionally the lighting illuminates the mist as if the performer were spitting sparks. The simplicity of the action and the many devices used to explore it captivated me until Gary the security guard had to usher me out at the end of the day.

Themes of simplicity, transformation of action, and improvisation along with devices such as slowing and reversing video are nothing new. It is the use of untrained performers just doing and being that strikes me as refreshing. Herring does not steep his ideas in artistic tradition and technique to create art that feeds on art. He creates situations where art can feed on life.

Spit Reverse is less about transcending the familiar, and more about making the familiar transcend itself.

Originally published in the Miami Art Exchange.