Rachel Herring (b. 1993, Opelika, Alabama) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer based in Rochester, New York. Her practice spans installations, video, publications, workshops, and digital platforms, often exploring time and light as central materials. Drawing inspiration from Slow Cinema and artists such as Uta Barth and Sarah Sze, Herring creates immersive works that encourage sustained attention and sensory awareness.
Her work examines how the design of contemporary technologies, including smartphones, generative AI, and algorithmic systems, shapes human perception of time, memory, attention, and sociopolitical dynamics. Through both research and artistic experimentation, Herring positions art as a way to intervene in these systems and reintroduce intentional slowness into everyday life.
One of her ongoing projects, Cellular Balance Workbook, was developed through democratic design workshops with participants exploring how smartphones could be redesigned to support healthier relationships with time and attention. The companion installation, 53 Days, visualizes the cumulative time that can be reclaimed annually through intentional changes to smartphone use.
Herring’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Javett Art Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the Arts Council of Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey. Her professional activities include receiving the Scarlet ArtsRx Grant from Rutgers University, speaking at Design Research Spotlight in New York City, and co facilitating a Mellon Foundation supported inquiry into AI and art with Eyebeam and the Department of Transformation.
She is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology and previously worked as an art director in Manhattan’s beauty industry. Herring received a BFA in Graphic Design from Auburn University and an MFA in Design from Rutgers University.
Currently Exhibiting in: Rochester, New York
Web: studioherring.com
Instagram: @studioherring
Book: Cellular Balance Workbook
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Title: 53 Days
Year of Creation: 2024
Medium: Video installation
Edition Type: Unique, 1 of 1
Price: $1,200
Description
53 Days visualizes the amount of time Rachel Herring reclaimed after redesigning her smartphone habits. By reducing her daily screen use by an average of three and a half hours, she calculated that the cumulative time regained over a year totals fifty three days.
The installation presents a slow moving projection of natural light traveling across a space, transforming the gallery environment into a human scale sundial. The gradual movement of light invites viewers to slow down and observe subtle changes over time.
Rather than delivering a direct narrative, the work creates a contemplative environment that encourages sustained looking and embodied rest. The shifting light functions as both a temporal marker and a metaphor for reclaimed attention.
53 Days reflects Herring’s broader artistic practice, which investigates how contemporary technologies compress time and fragment perception. By visualizing the possibility of reclaiming time through small behavioral changes, the work asks viewers to reconsider their relationship with the devices that structure daily life.
Through quiet observation and minimal movement, the installation opens space for reflection on how attention, presence, and time might be experienced differently when technological rhythms are interrupted.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Soft Shadows
Theme: Where light meets quiet transformation. This exhibition explores the subtle tension between illumination and restraint, examining moments where growth and clarity unfold without spectacle.
Media: Painting, sculpture, photography, installation
Exhibition Dates: March 19 to March 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 19, 6 PM to 8 PM