Helen Miller

 

Growing Up with Silver and About the Untitled Mirrors 

"Silver has always been part of my life. It is a material I grew up with and so it feels like part of me. When I look at silver so many memories emerge; of my father, his craftsmen, of their workbenches, the dirt of the polishing room, the sparkle of a sugar bowl chased with a pattern of strawberries. Silver takes up a significant part of my memory and most things are in some way connected to it.

As a youth I spent time working alongside skilled English craftsmen. Two in particular worked with glass so this recent collection of untitled mirrors is rooted to the European craftsmen I feel a deep connection with.

I found a piece of mirror one day and I picked it up because I saw that the silver was coming off. It was because it was falling apart that I noticed it. The disintegration made me more aware of the material because I saw it in a state of change. I didn’t think these things at the time I just felt an emotional connection to the old mirror so I put it in the workshop and left it there.

Some time later Helen was photographing a room in our house, which has dark walls. Looking at her pictures it struck me that all the light was being absorbed by the building and by the furniture and little was being reflected back. So I remembered the piece of mirror. And the shape came to mind from some black drawings of a crystal form I had made at that time. They are very dark drawings and within their blackness I felt the possibility of the opposite, of light.

I wanted to see if that crystal shape would work in three dimensions. So I had the form and the material and I put them together. But the main thing in my mind really was to create something the opposite of the drawing, the reverse, that did not absorb light and that gave energy and balance to the room. I wasn’t for a moment thinking about making something you could look at yourself in.\\

What is essential to me in these works is that the disintegration of the mirror surface makes you aware of the silver. By finding that first piece of abandoned mirror I identified a material in a particular state that I felt connected to and that I could work with. Most of the materials I work with tend to have such a patina. This can happen naturally or can be created. If the material has to be transformed in order to let it speak then that’s what I do. But I need to understand what has created the surface that draws me towards it. Whether it’s time, misuse or loving care, whatever has happened that makes it compelling, I identify. But sometimes new, unaltered materials can also be an interesting counterpoint. Simply because they have not yet had a life.


In my mind there is no hierarchy of one material over another, be it a diamond or charcoal. Part of growing up with silver made me realize it was just a substance that happens to be wonderful to work with because of it’s physical qualities, not it’s status or worth. The skill of working with silver is the understanding of reflection. When you make an object in silver you need to know how it captures the world around it.

Making the UNTITLED MIRRORS I have been working with ovals and facets over a period of time and a dialogue has developed between me and them, between the reflective and the dark, the shadow and the light, and there is always the chance that when I look into one of my pieces something unexpected might happen."


25 September 2010 Helen Miller