During the first two weeks of his StudioWorks Residency with the Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport Maine, Miller scoured the coastlines of Passamaquoddy and Cobscook bay foraging for and collecting nylon rope discarded and washed up onto the shoreline.
BJM was interested in repurposing this beautiful collected trash as a medium for art. It became a treasure hunt, dancing with the tide, searching the shores and under docks; pulling up all sizes and colors of rope out of rocks and water. He then brought his substantial haul into the Free Will Church to begin the task of untangling and sorting.
In the 1940s, DuPont and other plastic companies pushed for and began to replace hemp as the principal material for rope. Unfortunately nylon, unlike hemp, does not easily decompose, and its abundance, along with other plastics in the ocean, is very destructive to marine ecosystems.
Sperm Whale images taken by SMASS 2019
Now joined by collaborator Nathan Weick, they began to envision and prepare for an installation in the church. They worked with alchemical symbols and used the rope to sketch compositions into the vast space of the church. They used nautical knots and fishing line (which disappears in the right light), to design three dimensional geometric forms suspended throughout the church.
Working within the framework of the church’s space: the vaulted ceilings, pillars and columns, and inspired by stained glass windows and their designs and colors, five principle geometric forms were constructed.
Miller and Weick kept a daily ritual of drawing, collecting and bringing in found objects to complete the installation. They utilized the the church space by meditating, doing breath-work, as well as listening to or making music during the creative process. The church doors were open and passer-byes wondered in to hangout and engage with the work.
Employing the great acoustics, light and presence of the church, the work culminated in an opening night with live music as well as collaborative readings including a list read aloud that was inspired by our time in Eastport. The list was a collaboration with BJM, Nathan Weick, Dana Lynn Harper and Bethany Springer, who also designed the list composition below. Local musician Bill Johnson performed two songs related to tides.
The residency and event were a celebration of the Free Will Church’s 200th year anniversary. Miller and Weick thought of their work as a kind of time capsule greeting to the church for hopefully, its future, 300th anniversary.
