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Harland Miller, XXX, 2023
16 colour silkscreen print on Somerset Radiant White Tub Sized 410gsm Paper,
96.7 × 70 cm,
Edition of 75, signed and numbered
XXX is taken from a painting of the same title, first shown in the artist’s 2019 solo show at White Cube, Hong Kong. The print takes the form of the cover of a novel, with the top section a complex graphic layering of letters and colours, counterbalanced by a clean band of neutral colour bearing the title and author/artist’s name, where drips of paint at the bottom of the canvas expose its layering of colours. The work is part of an ongoing series, where Miller employs mono or bi-syllabic words to create hard-edged letter paintings with bold, saturated colours that reference, amongst others, Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha’s use of vernacular signage and motifs. Miller depicts the letters in a range of typefaces, through a process of isolating, overlaying and reconnecting, to create a sense of depth in the image that deconstructs and abstracts the meaning of language itself. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts, these works bring a Pop sensibility to the lettering of medieval monks, connecting the sacred with the everyday.
The letter X is significant to the artist in its form and design but also given its connotations and connection to punk culture and X-rated cinema. The letters XXX are built up from layers of various colours, their image suggesting objects in motion, where several forms are compressed at once, kaleidoscopic and transparent – like a series of sequential, transparent slides.
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Harland Miller is an artist and writer whose career has included time spent in both Europe and America. As a writer, his novels and short stories often take his autobiography as the point of departure. A love of books themselves, not only as the carriers of stories but as objects in their own right, has inspired his artistic practice. In his paintings, works on paper and printmaking Miller regularly sets up the potential for narratives, characterised by their humanity and tragi-comedy, using titles, phrases or single letters and words to echo or allow for multiple readings. Harland Miller was part of the Fools Rain group exhibition at the ICA in 1996 and the Writer-in-Residence in 2002.
no. 236848.