Eastern Oregon University > Art Program at EOU > Profile > Tiffany Miller

Tiffany Miller

The act of relating to other humans is what defines and maintains our species. When specific occurrences such as sex are introduced, the way in which we relate to individuals changes dramatically and immediately. The space this other person inhabits becomes loaded with meaning, and their belongings take on a new significance.

For myself specifically, I was awakened to these ideas after a sexual experience, and was made increasingly aware of my own fluidity and ideas of physical emptiness when that “other” was not still in my physical space. This emptiness was only identified as so when the energy of the other was left within the space.

Artist, Ann Hamilton spoke about idea of the female as a liquid, never able to maintain her form or hold her boundaries. These ideas not only ring true, but also drive my current body of work. When connecting this notion of the woman as a formless creature to new experiences of relating, the work strives to reference the residual energy and restlessness that results.

The use of long exposure enables the onlooker to view the energy captured within and around the female form. The use of smaller images forces the viewer to become intimate with the story, and delve deep into what exactly the photographs illustrate. In documenting myself as a sort of hazy being, not able to escape the space in which these encounters take place, I hope to reference Hamilton’s ideas of the liquid woman as well as document new beliefs about my own boundaries.

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