Oliver Herring, a visiting artist from New York, led workshops with community members in Alserkal Avenue that encouraged creative risk and the break-down of social barriers. Herring is one of a number of contemporary artists who are interested in the complex interactions between art, artist, and viewer.

Artist Commission | 8 December 2015 | A4 Project Space
Oliver Herring | TASK Workshop

TASK was an improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules. Participants were invited to sign-up for this special workshop in which they agreed to follow two simple, procedural rules: to write down a task on a piece of paper and add it to a designated “TASK pool;” and, secondly, to pull a task from that pool and interpret it any which way he or she wants, using whatever is on (or potentially off) stage. When a task is completed, a participant writes a new task, pulls a new task, and so on.

TASK parties and workshops provided an opportunity for students to explore Art as social interaction and the ways in which viewers’ beliefs and the social functions of art impact how contemporary art practice is seen in our society.

Artist Commission | 22 - 23 January 2016 | Warehouse G59
Oliver Herring | Task Party Dubai

Task Party Dubai was an improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules conceived by Oliver Herring, a visiting artist living in Brooklyn, New York. Task Party’s open-ended participatory structure creates almost unlimited opportunities for a group of people to interact with one another and their environment.

Presented as part of Quoz Arts Fest 2016, Task Party Dubai was developed as part of the 2015-2016 season of the Alserkal Avenue Programme, which sets out to critically examine the expanding concepts of community and belonging that are taking shape in Dubai. Commissioned artists have been invited to investigate the industrial heritage of Al Quoz and the points of intersection between Alserkal Avenue and its neighbourhood through particular artistic forms, including performance, social practice, research and public art.