Artist Profile: Andrea Mae Miller

Andrea Mae Miller, printmaker

Exhibition Statement
Tableau
27 August to 21 September 2009

By definition a constructed composition, arranged and posed for an acknowledged audience. Like stuffed birds in a museum display, this artificially motionless arrangement, could this really be a true representation of the creatures in life?

We create our own compositions, framed beautifully by the car window, separated (and protected) by a pane of glass. Perhaps nature is more manageable contained in a frame, a window, the edges of a piece of paper. We make our mark on the landscape, fence it in, make roads framed with strings of power lines.

The work in Tableau has been inspired by two very different experiences, one being a road trip down the west coast from Nelson to Greymouth. The other influential experience was visiting both the National Art Museum and the Zoology museum in Copenhagen, the former with walls almost wallpapered in frames, and the latter with examples of stuffed animals, skeletons and assorted ‘bits and pieces’ of creatures from around the world. The culture and history of museums interests me, the idea of the collections (and collectors) of Victorian times, braving the unknown to gather exotic specimens to send home. What a job! I feel a resonance with these ghosts when I gather my own specimens, a sketch of a shag, an etching of a stand of nikau palms found by the side of the road near Punakaiki. I create my own displays and compositions of how I read the separate elements I have found. Man-made elements creep in, buildings, carvings, frames, a little too much symmetry. A reminder that we are not in the wild, we are safe inside, looking out through the windows.


Artist Statement
In 1998 Andrea began a diploma in Applied Arts at Northland Polytechnic, specializing in Jewellery and Ceramics. In association with Northland Polytechnic she participated in an exhibition exchange with Northern Territories University, in Darwin, Australia, curating the exhibition with one other representative from her class. While in Darwin, Andrea got her first look at a print workshop and the types of work the students were producing. This triggered a new interest and when she returned to New Zealand, Andrea applied for the Bachelor of Fine Arts program offered at Otago Polytechnic. In 1999 Andrea moved to Dunedin where she majored in Printmaking, under the tutelage of Marilynn Webb and Chris De Jong, Graduating in 2002. Now Andrea’s art has been exhibited all over the country, from Te Miringa Gallery in Russell, Bay of Islands, to City Gallery in Invercargill.

“My woodblocks are a tonal exploration of the New Zealand flax plant and the weaving unique to this material. I weave my images out of layers of ink. Reduction blocks mean each image is finite, being destroyed as part of the process (Atropos). Green is flexible, alive, and vibrant. Woven of light and shadow, I print from light to dark.”

“I have been exploring the native plants and wildlife of New Zealand, celebrating the unique qualities that make this such a special place to live.”