For the ARMORY's Focus section, BANK presents Oliver Herring' s seminal sculptural and performative works from the nineties that helped define art in the era of AIDS and launched Herring onto the international art circuit with presentations at The New Museum, MoMA, and other prominent institutions of contemporary art.
In response to losing one of his artistic heroes, the performer Ethyl Eichelberger, Herring began a silent protest through the laborious act of knitting, at first with transparent tape to express " the invisibility of being queer," and eventually in silver mylar, "as a protective armor." From 1991-2001, Herring knitted to mark his way through time. These sculptural works transcended gender associations in exquisite forms and gained critical acclaim through their expression of the body, loss, absence, and refuge.
BANK presents two monumental mylar pieces: "An Age for Hands," a six-panel quilt that was exhibited at the Guggenheim in 1997, and "Big Round Flat" a spherical work that alludes to a crashed disco ball and was one of the last knitted pieces Herring produced. This work signified that the party was over for a community embattled in crisis and punctuated Herring's personal transition away from the solitary task of knitting to a more collaborative medium, video.
