John Miller
dal 30/6/2005 al 20/8/2005
Segnalato da
30/6/2005
John Miller
Galerie Barbara Weiss (old location), Berlin
The Middle of the Day. Artist's artwork is characterized by the examination of various societal models of identification and representation. He uses diverse media: painting, photography, sculpture (frequently in the form of material assemblages), installation and personals ads. His motifs typically refer to an already existing image vocabulary and image system.
The Middle of the Day
The American artist John Miller (b. 1954) has been living in both New
York and Berlin since he received a DAAD grant in 1991. As an artist
and critic, he thus works between the U.S. and European contexts. His
artwork is characterized by the examination of various societal models
of identification and representation. He uses diverse media: painting,
photography, sculpture (frequently in the form of material assemblages
coated with /John-Miller-Brown/), installation and personals ads. His
motifs typically refer to an already existing image vocabulary and image
system. As an author and instructor, he writes theoretical essays
situated in a Marxist and post-structuralist system of reference,
exploring recent art history and theory, as well as artistic and
curatorial practices
His current show at Galerie Barbara Weiss features 82 new photographs.
They belong to the open-ended series of works titled The Middle of the
Day, begun in 1994. The series comprises everyday, informal moments shot
between noon and 2 pm in various locations. These small photos often
depict lively cityscapes in New York, Berlin or Vienna, for instance,
with people of different generations. They are interspersed with quieter
and more intimate moments shot in apartments or other interior spaces as
well as with views of parks or rural regions. Miller frames them all in
the same format and hangs them in a non-narrative and non-hierarchical
order at eye level.
The time at which the photos presented in the show were taken is
precisely the middle of a normal working day. For many, this is the time
of day during which one takes a break and eats something, despite the
demand of using the hours allotted to productive labor as efficiently as
possible. Here, the work ethic comes up against its bodily limits.
Today, however, lunch-breaks or midday meals, as an institution, are
being phased out. As Western societies evolve into new information and
service economies, many employees can (or must) organize their working
day in a flexible manner; some don't even have time for a break.
Conversely, those without a permanent job have free time almost all day.
As such, the daily periods of work and leisure time are becoming
increasingly more indistinct. Ironically, John Miller says, my project
could be understood as an attempt to reclaim the middle of the day for a
total (aesthetic) production. /But what I am interested in is to
document something intangible, something that can only become fixed in a
picture if it is placed in a system: the problem of evaluation./
With The Middle of the Day, then, Miller raises questions pertaining to
the value of time, of everyday experiences, of work and leisure time,
and - something which is not quite as obvious - questions as to how the
personalities of artists or other people working in a creative field are
constructed and the question of what is rejected and what is saved in
everyday life, in art and in culture. Hence, he is engaged with what one
could call the complexity of the political economy, wherein everydayness
grants direct access to its underlying contents. Its surface, however,
conceals and obscures the actual relations of domination.
Miller has noted the impossibility of depicting everydayness and of
taking photographs devoid of content. After all, doesn't each depiction
of everydayness ultimately turn an ordinary event into an image, an
exemplary document, thus destroying its everyday quality? As Miller
himself put it,/ I do not claim that my photos can portray the everday
life of the masses. Rather, they allude to that possibility through
their apparent meaninglessness./ Although Miller conceived /The Middle
of the Day /as a documentary project, one can also read it as a
quasi-diary or as a mediated self-portrait.
In addition to the photographs, Miller's large sculptures, Topology for
a Museum, 1994 and The Absence of Myth, 2003, will be on view. These
suggest that the prosaic motifs of /The Middle of the Day/ might be read
from such allegorical and enchanted landscapes.
Barbara Buchmaier
Exhibitions since 2004/2005 (selection)
2004 Metro Pictures, New York (solo); John Miller: Total Transparency,
Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (solo); John Miller: 493 KB from
the Administered World, Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London (solo); John
Miller. Le milieu du jour, 1994-2004, Cabinet des Estampes du Musée
d'art et d'histoire, Geneva (solo); Body display. Performative
Installation #4, Secession, Vienna; Before the end, Le Consortium,
Dijon; 2005 John Miller, Mai-Thu Perret, Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris
(solo); Richard Hoeck und John Miller, Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna
(solo); Das Neue Europa. Kultur des Vermischens und Politik der
Repräsentation, Generali Foundation, Vienna; Kunst Schokolade Chocolate
Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Automobilisé, Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux;
Private View 1980-2000 Collection Pierre Huber, Musée cantonal des
Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Opening: June 1, 6-8 pm
Image: Breadbox, 2001, plastic decoration objects, wood, 34 x 45 x 45 cm
Galerie Barbara Weiss
Zimmerstrasse 88-89 10117 Berlin Tel 030-262 42 84 Fax 030-265 16 52
Opening hours: Tuesday- Saturday, 11 am-6pm