Steven Miller

Available Works

• Exhibitions: Bound, Sept 2007

Bound

"In Bound, rope symbolizes the mental, physical and spiritual ties that bind. Materially, the subjects are bound to self, others, and inherently, the unknown. The tied ropes are constricting or loose, a representation of the various connections and disconnections between friends, lovers and strangers. Ropes around the subjects’ heads act as a metaphor for how we’re wrapped up inside our perceptions and simultaneously, by emphasizing yet obscuring the face, the viewer is encouraged to consider other aspects of the body.

In many respects this work is informed by the theatrical, but here the darkened stage is replaced by utter blackness. The series aims to plot emotional points between the figures that stand effortlessly in the void and those that are contorted in space. Some subjects appear completely at ease with those existential limits - their environment cradles them, while others seem to struggle with their conflicted state. It raises the question: How comfortable are we when confronted by the knowledge that, while some things are indeed know-able, the unknown remains tangible and inevitable?" -Steven Miller, August 2007

Searching for Clues / Proof of Homosexuality in Nature

I view these works as chapters in a book - small narratives that join together to tell a larger tale. With Searching for Clues, a man buries his head in the earth to find answers that logic and reason cannot provide. [In Proof of Homosexuality in Nature,] ten male rabbit-costumed couples happily fornicate in a forested setting, oblivious to anything but their own pleasure. Aspects of the photograph were created with Robert Mapplethorpe's work in mind, a man who presented his own sexual underworld with an impassive eye and was deemed obscene by the conservative politicians of his time. A poignant question remains: Why are we still fighting over something as personal and intimate as sexual desire?

Milky

With Milky, the camera documented the immediate emotional reactions of 60 individuals being doused with cold milk. In the images, I considered the materiality of milk as a metaphor for the nature of sexuality; something which is fluid, tangible, and ephemeral. Depicting friends, lovers, and complete strangers coated in the fluids of another animal, the photographs are meant to suggest both the pleasures and risks associated with sexual exchange.