Artist Spotlight: Jaclyn Miller ‘09
April 28 – October 3
Location: Ducan Gallery Vitrines
Featuring We Three and Vacation by Studio Art alumna Jaclyn Miller, 2009.
Mixed media, Elizabeth Knight Sumner Purchase Award, Homer and Dolly Hand Art Center, 2009.05.11.001a-b.
Exhibit assistant: Jett Scheingoltz, with special support from Jody Poczik, Renee Matthews, Cornelius Mulyokela and Bill Raulerson. Faculty advisor: Natália Marques da Silva, PhD.
Artist Statement by Jaclyn Miller
The current American populace has been well trained by the media to be familiar with and vicariously place itself within the fictional situations it sees through its TV screens. I chose to use this ease of projection onto a different reality as a means to get my viewers connected to the work in my exhibition. The images on the sets are archetypal; hairstyles, clothing, and posture all suggest how to read the situations provided. However, by replacing facial expressions and skin tones with the eerie quality of television static, the images become somewhat anonymous and more open to interpretation. My hope is that those visiting the show will come armed with their own banks of experiences that can be superimposed onto the work either by recognizing a particular event or by using their past to create a new narrative for the images shown.
Interpretation by Jett Scheingoltz
Jacelyn Miller’s piece is a beautifully painted portrait of people with diverse backgrounds on screens of old TVs, ones that didn’t usually produce color images. There’s something compelling about the old pieces of wood and warped plastic being used as a frame. The almost pastel colors and effortless palette give the piece an almost monochromatic look. Within each composition is a dream-like scene of all people from all kinds of backgrounds, ages, and situations. In Miller’s statement about Tune in/out she comments on our perception of our own lives
through the eye of media and television.
