Profile

Jan Miller’s textile art begins and ends with a collection: researching old, creating new. It is informed by her background in science and family history of domestic sewing. Layers of skills passed on and retained: experience and experiment; method and order; repetition and re-use. Assemblages hold a story and present a point-of-view.

Jan Miller’s current textile work explores our perception of a landscape. Apparent wild and isolated areas can be the result of land management by local and wider interests, introducing both balance and imbalance – cause and reaction.

The North Norfolk Coast has a stretch of shingle bank bounding a freshwater marsh and reedbeds, originally maintained by its landowner for the purpose of wildfowling. This particular land parcel is now protected by Norfolk Wildlfe Trust as a colonised place of safety for its indigenous wildlife and migratory birds. Additional income is raised by reed-cutting and cattle-grazing.

Jan’s process of making is informed by a background in science and family history of domestic sewing. Layers of skills passed on and retained; experience and experiment; method and order; repetition and re-use. Collecting and cataloguing found objects – either natural or manmade – are part of her visual process. The objects may have little value, but the evidence of wear and use indicate slivers of a story.

In the studio, the ‘collected’ are isolated, displayed, observed; groups connect by marks, colour, location, shape, size. Discarded cloth and papers are manipulated and folded; natural dyes   highlight creases and incisions; print and handstitch accentuate detail.  Collages unify the fragments of these reclaimed materials, now marked by handling and stains. Layering, wrapping with wire and thread, making bundles, rolls and stacks, build the two-dimensional into three-dimensional constructs.

These resulting assemblages are displayed on surfaces or in containers; refractive blocks may disturb the light and shadows; the finished installation holds the threads of a story from alternative points of view.