WE THE LIVING (2019)
20 Minute Performance
Single Channel Video, 13 Minutes 26 Seconds, HD, Colour
Sound by Craig Scott
Mixed Media Installation with Costumes
AiR (Feb - Mar 2019), NAIRS Contemporary Art Center, Scoul, Switzerland
Supported by The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust
Screenings: Herat International Women's Film Festival, Afghanistan (26 Aug 2020); Casa Viva Gallery, Mexico City (8 Feb 2020); Winner The Next Thing Moving Image Award, Bury Art Museum, Manchester (9 Nov - 25 Jan 2019); Performance Space, Folkstone (27 Sept 2019)
‘We the Living’ is a magical realist film directed and performed by Hollie Miller with music composed by Craig Scott. Conceptualized and shot during her residency at NAIRS Contemporary Art Centre in Switzerland where it was also presented as a live performance/ installation. Set in a former bath house and abandoned mineral water distillery Miller is accompanied only by her sculptures. She uses found and altered organic materials to reimagine her anatomy through an animalistic framework. This surrealist film explores metamorphosis, annihilation and rebirth in reference to iconic paintings, sculptures and performance art actions.
"From sensual to disturbing and always uncompromising and uninhibited was British Artist Hollie Miller in her performance at NAIRS."
Jon Duschletta, Journalist, Engadine Post
"Like Meret Oppenheim, Hollie Miller knows how to make a seemingly simple gesture that is profound, multi-layered and which burrows immediately into the subconscious. I say 'seemingly' because it takes a unique vision combined with so much expertise, learning and practice to make work that appears effortless but which hits the mark so accurately."
Zavier Ellis, Director, Charlie Smith London
Materials: wooden palette; chair; hemp rug; wooden ladder; large round chalk tablet; dead butterfly; wooden dining table; red bricks; red rubble; earth pigments; driftwood; goats skull; gutted desk; peeled wallpaper; honey; feather boa; glass vulva flute; vintage copper hot water bottle with flax; wooden wheel with coins and rope; mud covered doll with leather straps; collection of assorted snail shells
Costumes: muslin sack dress; spinning flax on hemp rope harness with twine; twin piece trousers and cropped long sleeve top made from net, rope and tassels
WE THE LIVING (2019)
Trailer
A Film by Hollie Miller with Sound by Craig Scott
WE THE LIVING (2019)
Installation Shots
Photos: Hollie Miller/ Jack Stanley
WE THE LIVING (2019)
Live Performance (5 Minute Extract)
Camera: Aischa Muller & Gregor Vogel
Edit: Hollie Miller
Post Sound: Craig Scott