Thursday through Sunday
Watch this: Sculptor Jane Miller turns back time in live project at TexasContemporary Art Fair
Following up its popular booth of $5 Steve Keene paintings at last year's Texas Contemporary Art Fair, the Rice Gallery is hosting a live project by artist Jane Miller for the 2012 show, which starts it four-day run Thursday evening at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
CultureMap stopped by Rice for a quick Tuesday morning chat with Miller, as she prepped for ClockShop — an installation designed to resemble a small store cluttered with artworks made from wristwatches, wall clocks and other timepiece-related materials. All items will retail below $100, she guaranteed.
"Clocks are really becoming extinct, in a way," she said. "I mean, who uses a watch anymore? . . . The clock has become an icon of another age, like the ax or, eventually, the book."
"I've always thought of myself on some level as a Mrs. Fix-it," the Connecticut-based artist explained. "I like messing around with things, taking things apart and putting them together again. So for this show, I chose to focus on clocks and this idea of trying to either fix them or reassemble them in an artistic fashion."
A museum associate in the coins and medals department at the Yale University Art Gallery, Miller has long drawn the notions of collecting, cataloging and compiling into her art.
"At the art fair, I'm going to play the role of an horologist . . . Although, I'm guessing not a terribly good one, considering I only started over the summer."
The artist have created a number of limited-run prints for the show and plans to cover the booth in clock-themed wallpaper she herself designed. Around her will sit timepieces of all sorts — Art Deco, Victorian, folksy, broken, slow, modern, gently-used.
"Clocks are really becoming extinct, in a way," she said. "I mean, who uses a watch anymore? I've noticed it's become a fashion statement recently, but I'm not sure how often people look at them. The clock has become an icon of another age, like the ax or, eventually, the book. I think this installation taps into that idea."
Sponsored by the Rice University Art Gallery, Jane Miller's ClockShop will be located in booth 913 at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, which opens Thursday night and runs through Sunday. Click here for hours, tickets and programming.