Herold, whose works embrace painting, collage, performance, and film, came to international renown through his participation at the Venice and Sydney biennales and documenta X. Calling himself a “documentary archaeologist,” Herold takes trips to lands both literal and imaginary to recapture lost histories, recounting stories that range from Joseph Beuys mythic crash and salvation in the Crimea during WWII, to confrontations with the birth of racist theory in artifacts found in the Republic of Georgia.
In his "Aus der Serie, Shöne Heimat," Herold uses found photographic images of idyllic rural scenes, which are digitally printed, then washed with stain, watercolor, and Chinese ink. Like the effects of the onslaught of experience on harbored definitions, his painterly overlays cast a quivering filter over a past that refuses to settle into resolution.