Wyoming Arts Council

CLICK! interview with “interventionist artist” Sean Miller

Featured News | March 26, 2014

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CLICK! A WEEKEND FOR WYOMING VISUAL ARTISTS takes place April 4-6 at venues in Fort Washakie, Lander and Riverton. Artist Sean Miller from Florida will present the keynote address April 4 at the Wind River Institute. Lorre Hoffman, an artist and supervisor of higher education services for the Wind River Development Fund, interviewed Miller prior to the conference.  

Lorre Hoffman: What kind of an artist do you call yourself, i.e., painter, performance, time-based, etc.

Sean Miller: I am a multimedia artist and interventionist artist or just contemporary artist. When reflecting on my practice (or describing it) I never begin with media. The same is true when I begin to ideate a project. Usually the decisions regarding the media come after the idea is clearly established. The Fluxus movement is a great influence in terms of my mindset and my approach to the creative process.

Hoffman: In a chicken and the egg way, which do you think comes first: the technology is made then the artist is attracted to it or in some cases does the artist invent the technology… take it farther?

Miller: I heard recently that there is a hypothesis that the ancient cave paintings in France were often executed in spots with the best acoustics. The suggestion that the painters were picking places in the caves where voices or singing sounded the best might lead historians to consider the paintings were part of a larger ritual or creative act. If the painters were responding to acoustics to help improve the overall success of their project, they were putting their collective knowledge of site-specific sound into a practical application to benefit their creative work. By definition, broadly speaking, they were employing technology. Artists regularly find themselves in predicaments where they have a vision that seems impossible to realize. The tools don’t exist, the budget is too costly, the projected time commitment is massive, and yet the artist wants to see the project into existence. This necessity brings out their own inventive skills or leads them to look for new tools or other inventions to help them succeed.

Hoffman: What part does a museum play in terms of your art, digital art, time-based art?

Miller: The museum is endlessly fascinating to me as a subject. Many artists aspire to have their work in the museum and yet there is a quote by Marcel Duchamp where he basically says that the most banal art from every era is what ends up in museum collections. I like producing work that destabilizes with the aura, boundaries, and definitions of museums. Some people have described my work as a form of institutional critique. I believe that is a part of it but more I think it is about exploring the potential of museums and the systems that are in place that define the way art is presented to various audiences. My 10-year project is the John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA). JEMA is a location variable museum space housed in a series of 16″x12″x9″ aluminum carrying cases. The museum also manifests itself in a series of drawings, prints, collages, and performances. JEMA is a museum, display case, crate, exhibition space, sculpture, photographic series, performance, installation, site-specific project, collaboration and web-based project. In fact, in its operation JEMA exhibits and demonstrates almost all media associated with visual art (sometimes simultaneously). In addition, it involves nearly all the realms of art practice and the business of art, revitalizing the roles of curator, artist, and viewer.

JEMA dematerializes the art institution and re-envisions it as a tool (capable of being transported as carry-on luggage) while still highlighting and publicizing artists and providing a rich cultural service. (See more about JEMA here.)

Hoffman: What part does a commercial gallery play in terms of your art, digital art, time-based art?

Miller: Commercial galleries are not as interesting to me as alternative spaces but these are very general terms. What really is most important to me is the curatorial vision and energy behind the space.

In 1995, I co-founded the art collective and  gallery SOIL in Seattle and it is still in operation. At that time I really was excited by similar alternative projects in Seattle like Horsehead and Project 416. However, I also enjoyed more commercial spaces like Greg Kucera and Howard House because of the artists and curatorial strength of the exhibitions.

Hoffman: I know you as a great painter from our old artist in residence days in Galesburg, Illinois. Do you still paint or crave painting?

Miller: Yes I still paint. Of course. I think what started to happen in Seattle was that running SOIL started to make me consider art in a broader sense. It became stifling for me to identify solely as a painter. My painting was always on the brink of installation or assemblage anyway. Running SOIL made me more experimental, playful, and curious. At University of Florida, I teach in the Sculpture Department and I do love to work sculpturally but I also make photos, performances, drawings, and paintings.

Hoffman: Are the ideas of museums and galleries relevant to some of the new time-based art?

Miller: Of course, yes, but things are always in flux. Museums and galleries are obviously not just places. They may serve as an information hub, a social network, and they are composed of people that can target artists’ work to particular audiences.

Hoffman: I heard a person the other day (I think it was a RISD professor) saying that the digital process in art was a great democratizing force in the creation of art, that the hours of practice and wished-for skill were removed and anyone could realize their concepts in visual form. What do you make of this statement?

Miller: I am interested in the populist way that digital culture and social networking allows us to communicate and self-publish, share images, info, articles, and essays. For instance, I love all the demos that exist on YouTube. It really helps artists and art students to be more DIY and it saves a lot of time for someone who is directed toward certain artistic goals. Now the issue, it seems, is sorting the best information and then also really absorbing it, applying it, and meditating on it.

Register for CLICK! here.

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