Description
‘Fan Boy’ by Justin Henry Miller
Artist: Justin Henry Miller
Title: ‘Fan Boy’
Medium: Graphite, acrylic, colour pencil, and coffee on paper
Dimensions: 7″ x 5″
Framing: Framed (frame size: 11″ x 9.5″)
Year of Creation: 2023
About the Artist:
(Artist Statement)
Like many artists, my experiences as a youth and adolescent have had a profound influence on the imagery that permeates my artwork. Growing up on a horse farm, I witnessed first hand the hyper manipulation of nature and natural process for human use. Livestock are routinely subjected to selective breeding, artificial insemination, ultrasound scanning and inoculations solely for commercial purposes. What initially begins as harmless bio-mimicry – creating a better future through chemistry and technology – devolves into a dystopia, rife with the cast-offs of unintended consequences and a garbage dump heap of bionic refuse stacked and left to rust and rot.
I have become increasingly interested in the closing gap between science fiction and science-fact. Cloning, transgenic breeding, surrogate mothering, surgical augmentation and food modification are just a handful of supposed advances that have sparked my imagination. I approach my work by imaging the experiments that have gone awry and try to create a world where the byproducts resist expiration. The juxtaposition of organic forms with sustaining mechanical devices suggests mankind’s imposition and calls to question the conflict between infliction and dependence. My paintings result in images of biomorphic beings, fluctuating between success and failure in their own dayglo world of desolation.