ABOUT
“Before I begin, there is a tug, an unspecified gravitational force towards a theme or a place. It seems beyond my capacity to articulate, a mystery, and that, too, is an attraction. On its surface, the subject may appear simple and unassuming. It could be a rock sculpted into a spider by wind, a tree covered in hoarfrost, a dancer’s tentative practice before a mirror, or a whisper of a vanishing language. But there is always more. Whatever it demands—a photograph or an oratorio, a book or an essay, an immersive work or a mural—I give it the form that manifests itself as a necessity. I work on it until some underlying essence begins to appear, a spirit shimmering through the simplest form. The original feeling starts to take shape, and it is usually a question, an opening, a possibility.”
Lena Herzog
Lena Herzog
American (immigrated in 1990, naturalized in 1999), b. 1970 in Russia.
The work of the multidisciplinary conceptual artist Lena Herzog is centered around themes of ritual and gesture, loss and dislocation. In order to convey them, she has explored the intersection of art and science both as a subject and as a process, by utilizing early photographic, contemporary and alternative experimental techniques in her printing work, as well as cutting-edge sound, immersive installation and virtual reality technologies for other projects.
Herzog’s work is mostly expressionist: form alludes to content and vice versa.
Having grown up among scientists in the Ural mountains on the Western border of Siberia, she continued her formal education at the University of St. Petersburg, Russia, studying languages and literature, and later, in California, at Mills College and Stanford, where her focus shifted to the history and philosophy of science. After discovering photography in the late 1990s, she apprenticed to Italian and French master printers, focusing on early and alternative photographic processes. Open to experimentation in her darkroom, Herzog combined techniques from the beginning of the photographic medium, like Pyrogallol, with contemporary digital ones.
Herzog travelled around the world exploring a wide range of subjects from pilgrimage and religion, dance and ritual to uncanny geological phenomena, wonder cabinets, and vanishing languages. She has published six books, monographs of photography; and portfolios of her work have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Magazine. Her work has been internationally exhibited and collected by major museums and institutions including the International Center of Photography in New York City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California, Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, Massachusetts, Museo de Carruajes, in Seville, Spain, and at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. A captivating public speaker and conversationalist, she has led illuminating public lectures, presentations, and conversations about photography, language, rituals and wonder cabinets worldwide.
Her most recent conceptual work was dedicated to the loss of world’s linguistic diversity and it is called Last Whispers: Oratorio for Vanishing Voices, Collapsing Universes and A Falling Tree. In it, Herzog used historical voice recordings of extinct and endangered languages spanning a century as well as made-audible gravitational waves caused by supernovae in order to create an immersive spatialized oratorio of vanishing languages and dying stars. Last Whispers is a multimedia, audio video installation, a public platform and a virtual reality (VR). The project is an ecosystem that explores the global mass extinction of languages. It premiered at the British Museum in London in 2016, and has traveled to Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, France, Brazil, Canada, and throughout the United States. Last Whispers Virtual Reality premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and garnered acclaim and prizes at over twenty major VR festivals around the world. Last Whispers’ 45 min immersive installation was shown at major concert halls and theaters like The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, while in France, it showed at the drama theater Le Théâtre de la Ville and at the Paris opera house Le Théâtre du Châtelet.
Her home, studio and darkroom are in Los Angeles, California.
Academic History and Training
1987 - 1988 proof reader, Gorky Printing Press, Saint Petersburg, Russia
1988 - 1990 English Language & Literature (not completed): student, Department of Philology at the University of Saint Petersburg, Russia
1993 - 1994 Archaeology: research fellow (honorarium), Department of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, USA / project thesis: Armageddon as a Retroactive Prophecy
1994 - 1996 Philosophy and History of Science (B.A.): student, Department of Philosophy, Mills College, USA / thesis: Order & Chaos in Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn vs Paul Feyerabend.
Languages
Russian (native), English, Spanish, French
Photography
1997 - present (self-taught)
Training in print work
Apprenticed to Ivan Dalla Tana, Milan, and Marc Valesella in early and alternative printing processes (gum, platinum, pyro, ‘gold’ printing).
Books
Lena Herzog (2024)
by Giuseppe Barbieri and Silvia Burini (in English)
Published by SKIRA, ISBN: 885725163
Lena Herzog “STRANDBEEST: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen” (2015)
With essay and interview by Lawrence Weschler
Published by TASCHEN, ISBN-10: 3836548496
Lena Herzog “LOST SOULS” (2010)
With essays by Luc Sante and Graham Burnett
Published by de.MO & International Center of Photography, New York
ISBN 978-0-9825-9080-5
Lena Herzog “FLAMENCO: Dance Class” (2003)
With essays by Ignacio de Cossio (translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa)
Published by Periplus Publishing London
ISBN (English): 11-902699-44-0 ISBN (Spanish): 1-84567-144-5
Lena Herzog “TAUROMAQIA: the Art of Bullfighting” (2002)
With essays by Ignacio de Cossio and Juvenal Acosta (translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa)
Published by Periplus Publishing London
ISBN (English): 1-902699-23-8 ISBN (Spanish): 1-902699-24-6 (2002)
Lena Herzog “PILGRIMS: Becoming the Path Itself” (2002)
With essay by Werner Herzog
Published by Periplus Publishing London
ISBN (English): 1-902699-43-2
Selected Shows
11 April-June 22 2024
ANY WAR ANY ENEMY (solo) show / VENICE ART BIENNALE:
Murals and mezzotints
CZF (Ca’ Foscari Zattere/Cultural Flow Zone)
Zattere al Pontelungo, Venice, Italy
LAST WHISPERS full immersive (solo) show / VENICE ART BIENNALE:
23 April-July 31 2022
Virtual Reality / 30 minutes
CZF (Ca’ Foscari Zattere/Cultural Flow Zone)
Zattere al Pontelungo, Venice, Italy
June 18 2022
The Art Night / 30 minutes / Last Whispers featured
(a large scale outdoor projection)
Main courtyard of Ca’Foscari
Palazzo Ca’Giustinian
Dorsoduro 3246, Venice, Italy
23 April-25 September 2022
Mural Installation
Main courtyard of Ca’Foscari
Palazzo Ca’Giustinian
Dorsoduro 3246, Venice, Italy
LAST WHISPERS Presentation at UNESCO
November 18, 2021
41st Plenary Session of UNESCO General Conference
Paris, France
LAST WHISPERS (solo) list of 2019 tour dates and venues:
25-29 January 2019
Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah
VR (7 min) premiere and the official selection at the New Frontiers program
24 February 2019 - Washington DC
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (46 min) & VR (7 min)
Terrace Theater (Millennium Stage Program), The Kennedy Center, co-presented by The Smithsonian, Washington DC
8-17 March 2019
SXSW Austin, TX
VR (7 min) official selection and in competition at South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival,
Virtual Cinema Program, Virtual Cinema Competition
8-12 April 2019
WSIS Forum 2019, Geneva, Switzerland
VR (7 min) official selection and special presentation
14 June 2019
Ford Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (46 min) and conversation with Paul Holdengräber and a panel
co-presented by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and by the Natural History Museum (NHM)
15 June 2019
LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
VR (7 min) and conversation with Michael Govan at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
October—December 2019
George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (46 min)
October 2019
PEAK Performances at Alexander Kasser Theater Montclair, NJ
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (46 min)
21 November 2019
Paris, France
Immersive Oratorio (video & audio installation) / event (46 min)
Theatre du Châtelet in Paris, featured / presented by Le Festival d’Automne in collaboration with UNESCO and Radio France
LAST WHISPERS (solo)
The British Museum, London UK October 2016
The Museum of Five Continents, Munich, Germany, November 2016
STRANDBEEST (two artist show)
Art Basel Miami, 2015
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, 1 September—15 November 2015
The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 1 February —15 May 2016
The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA 1 June—15 August 2016
DREAMS OF AMERICA (solo)
Polsky Gallery, Chicago, IL, 5 September—7 October 2014
PERMANENT MIRROR (solo)
Polsky Gallery, Chicago, IL, 25 October—1 December 2012; March 2013
AMERICA: A REVERIE (two artist show)
CUNY Center for Journalism, Exhibition Hall, New York, NY, 1 October—7 November 2012
PANORAMAS (solo)
Fahey / Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, January—March 2012
TWO YEARS AFTER (two artist show)
Track 16, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA, November, 2010
LOST SOULS (solo)
The International Center of Photography, New York, NY, 15 May – 10 September 2010
THE CIRCLE OF BLISS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 2 October to 31 December 2003
REFLECTING BUDDHA
Pasadena Museum of California Art, 14-23 November 2003
FLAMENCO (solo)
The Foyles Gallery
3 November - 28 November 2002
TAUROMAQUIA (solo)
Museum of Carruajes, Seville, Spain April - May 2002
ENSAYO
Multimedia show / large scale projections during a dance performance
Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts, November 6th - 8th, 2001
BELOW ZERO (solo)
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA USA, December 2000
Black and White Photographs from Andalucia and Shinxiang
Focus Gallery, San Francisco, CA USA, November 1998
Selected Publications
(Essays and Portfolios)
The New Yorker, The Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The London Times, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Vanity Fair, Cabinet Magazine, Variety, Cosmos and other editorials
Selected portfolios:
Portfolio: “Sedi Vacanti, at the Vatican,” by Lena Herzog, Harper’s Magazine (2013)
Portfolio: “Portraits of Super-Fandom,” by Lena Herzog, Vanity Fair (2012)
Portfolio: “The Long Draw,” Harper’s Magazine / portfolio (2012)
Portfolio + “The March of the Strandbeests,” by Ian Frazier, The New Yorker (2011)
Photo Booth: “Lena Herzog Stalks the Strandbeest,” The New Yorker (2011)
Portfolio + Interview with Lawrence Weschler, McSweeney’s: The Believer magazine (2011)
Portfolio: “Incompatible With Life,” The Paris Review Issue 188 (2009)
Portfolio: “Rhapsody in Death,” Cabinet Magazine Issue 36 (2009)
Portfolio: “Airship,” The Paris Review Issue 184 (2008)
Portfolio: “Gardens of Stone,” Harper’s Magazine (May 2008)
Portfolio + Cover: “The Light Stuff,” The Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine (2004)
Portfolio: “Lena Herzog on Spain,” British Journal of Photography (2003)