Sam Miller

Gyeongju, South Korea  2012

North Dakota  2015

Evelyn, Liverpool, England  2014

In the Vernacular - living room and kitchen

In the Vernacular was a collaborative project installed in the Gilson Room Gallery, Emporia, Kansas in 2006.  Using a combination of found and made work for the installation, Allison Foster and I altered the gallery space into five distinct domestic spaces interconnected thematically and architecturally.  Visitors to the show first encountered the house façade, behind which was a living room. Lit by warm Tungsten lights, the room held couches appropriated from Allison’s home and hundreds of origami gift boxes made from collected books. Fifty black-and-white portraits were projected onto a mold-stained screen in a corner of the room as potential inhabitants of this space.  People were randomly selected for the portraits, signifying that this could be anyone’s home. Beyond the living room was the kitchen, the brightest room of the “house”. Green walls framed a long table set with plates of soil and various plants to symbolize nourishment and growth. In the corner stood a kitchen sink overflowing with ivy. 

Photos by Jim Gu

In the Vernacular - bathroom, bedroom and hallway

In the Vernacular was a collaborative project installed in the Gilson Room Gallery, Emporia USA in 2006.  Using a combination of found and made work for the installation, Allison Foster and I altered the gallery space into five distinct domestic spaces interconnected thematically and architecturally.   

Ducking through a shower door the visitor entered the bathroom, which contained only a tall sink overflowing with strips of paper to symbolize streams of knowledge, wisdom, and experience.  Silhouettes wallpapered in the sink; some were brown and others seemed to have been soaked by the text that had overflowed.  The silhouettes led in a line to the next room. Deep purple walls draped with yards of red, hand-woven tapestry defined this space as the bedroom.  Shirts collected from various people made up the tapestry.  A spotlighted desk strewn with paper gave viewers the idea that someone had just been there, folding the origami boxes they had just seen. A door out of the bedroom gave access to the hallway littered with dried leaves and lined with forty paintings of a pear in various states of decomposition, leading back to the front of the house.  Found and given materials were collected to build the house because Allison and I wanted others to be a part of the work as much as we were.  Suggestions of  narratives were given to viewers throughout the house, but more importantly we wanted viewers to ask questions of the spaces they inhabit.  As a reminder of their visit, every visitor was presented a handmade bead necklace in an origami box.

 Photos by Jim Gu

Kyudo in Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan  2015

Ljubljana Castle Chapel, Ljubljiana, Slovenia  2012

Nezu, Tokyo, Japan  2014

Pickering, England  2105

Kita Senju, Tokyo, Japan  2015

Aya Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey  2015

Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey  2015

Istanbul, Turkey  2015

Hest Bank, England  2011