It's difficult not to think of Steve Miller when seeing art with compositions that x-ray to view the inner workings of plants, animals, nature in general or even couture. Miller discusses the path that led him to seek out x-ray machines and other medical technologies in order to create a different look at nature (and man's impact upon it) at the Parrish Art Museum on Friday, November 30, 2018 at 6 p.m.
Joining him in conversation is Carl Safina, conservationist author and television host who has the soul of a poet and a way with prose. The award-winning writer penned the forward to the Steve Miller's new book "Radiographic: X-Ray Photo Inventions" which will be part of center stage when the pair are interviewed by Corrine Erni, Senior Curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects.
Safina's book, "Beyond Words" takes readers to Africa and the last great elephant gathering; to the wolves of Yellowstone National Park; and to the killer whales of the Pacific Northwest, among other animal habitats. Through his writing, he examines how animals may think and feel as well as the qualities that make us human.
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On Safina's website, he writes: "From all I’ve seen, my main conclusion is that at this point in history, nature and human dignity require each other. Where wild places are destroyed, wild animals lost, and the world degraded and polluted, not only is that itself a great loss for the world, but for people in degraded places it becomes almost impossible to maintain a dignified existence."
Miller shares his viewpoint after multiple trips exploring the Amazon rainforest as well as the motion of protein structures in humans and the crossing of cells between borders. Nature is interlocking and interdependent and humans have their own role to play within it with neither separate from the other. X-ray technology was one way to gain a front row seat into a clearer understanding, Miller said.
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"When Conditions are Favorable" by Steve Miller, 2009, the image that forms the cover of the book "Radiographic: X-Ray Photo Inventions"
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Following the panel, both men hold a book signing. Miller, for Radiographic, and Safina, for The View from Lazy Point and Beyond Words.
The View from Lazy Point sees Safina kayaking in The Hamptons before journeying to the Arctic to south Antarctica, the tropics in the Carribean and the west Pacific before journeying home again while bringing readers along to meet Eskimos, penguins, bears and ecological dilemmas faced along the way while calling for compassion and connection between the natural world and the human one.
To discover more about Carl Safina, visit his website at www.carlsafina.org. To learn more about Steve Miller and his art, visit his website at www.stevemiller.art.
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"School of the Abyss" by Steve Miller, May 2015. Pigment dispersion and silk-screen on canvas, 79 x 113 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
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BASIC FACTS: Admission to the Talk is free for members and $12 for non-members. Click here to purchase or reserve a seat. The Parish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, NY 11976. www.parrishart.org.
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