PROJECTION 004: SHALA MILLER
The ii - V - I
JUNE 5 - JUNE 24, 2021
"The ii-V-I"
by Shala Miller
At the beginning I didn’t recognize it as a love song. Etta James howls, “LOOK! I want y’all to LOOK! Look at...” to start out her rendition of, Misty. There's a pause, her voice drops and the sound of desperation, the sound of yearning, the sound of when you can’t help but fall to your knees coats her next word; “...me”. And as the piano comes back in, it sort of naturally becomes the melody of my lonely heart when it cries out and I no longer question if this song is about love. I set out to learn the original piece written for the piano by Erroll Garner. After learning the melody on my right hand, I move on to learning the chords that will be played by my left. It is here that I’m introduced to the chord progression, “the ii-V-I”, which Garner uses throughout Misty. My piano teacher explains to me that the ii chord is considered your home base, and then there is a bit of a departure that follows when the V chord is played. It is a way to build tension and feels as though you’ve left home. And then as soon as the I chord is played, the tension is resolved and even though you’re playing a completely different set of notes from when you began, it somehow still sounds, and most importantly feels like you’ve returned home.
Still from Defeat Become My Lullaby at Sundown
Stills from Mrs. Lovely, 2021, video (11 min), vintage door, metal, acrylic, 72 x 26 x 2 inches (182.9 x 66 x 5.1 cm), Edition of 3 + 1 AP
The dry skin flare up around my “Brown Sugar” tattoo usually arises when I want to be kissed the most, these days. The two words lay right in between my breasts and sometimes when I move, the ry parts feel like fire. My skin, maybe like most others, has a language of its own, I’m convinced. And I’m thinking it’s built from a root where my speaking language is from. A root that carries history, the pain and salvation of my mother and her mother’s, learned and inherited habit, desires that I want to say are unfounded, but are truly shameful desires (to me), the way my father would lean over the kitchen sink, my love for knowing Ella Fitzgerald was a quiet woman, hating being a shy woman myself. I find it to be no coincidence that my skin, in the most vulnerable parts, erupts when I seek tenderness from empty places. Or that the blueness that has followed my mother, seems to be of similar hue to the blueness that follows me. Or that my father, a man of just a few words, would nearly put his whole head in the kitchen sink most days, during the moments where it seemed like he had too much to say. The arch his spine made is similar to the curvature of my hunchback–something that manifested from years of pushing my body into quietude, trying so desperately to be unseen (I have since learned how important it is for me to sit up straight).
Brown Sugar, 2019, photogravure, Paper: 11 1/4 x 10 inches (28.6 x 25.4 cm), Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Your Favorite Position, 2021
photolithograph and silkscreen on Rives BFK
11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Broken Girl Jumping Broken Rope, 2021
photolithograph and silkscreen on Rives BFK
11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Three Moldy Peaches, 2021
photolithograph and silkscreen on Rives BFK
11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Edition of 3 + 2 AP
Play, 2020, halftone silkscreen on Rives BFK, Paper: 31 1/4 x 45 in (79.4 x 114.3 cm), Framed: 32 1/2 x 46 1/4 in (82.5 x 117.5 cm), Edition of 3 + 2 AP
“Miss Mary Mack”, a hand clapping chant I sang/screamed as a child carries an echo heavy and rich, considering the same words and claps were made by my mother as a young girl 50 some odd years before people would even see my name and pronounce it incorrectly. Somehow, a younger me singing about “Miss Mary Mack” being dressed in black was simultaneously having a conversation with my mother in her younger years. The flare up around my breast proves to me that I will always be in dialogue with my body. My father’s head hanging in the kitchen sink, although a quiet position, remains as an image that speaks loudly as a memory in my mind. The lyrics to “Miss Mary Mack”, imprinted at the back of my brain, ready to sing anytime I see hands ready for clapping, is proof that my being was, is and will always be in dialogue with my history as a Black woman and no matter what tension or resistance that may arise, I know that I’ll be able to return home even if it is in a new position.
Still from Mourning Chorus, 2021, single channel video, dimensions variable, Edition of 3 + 1 AP
Tainted Love Bite, 2020 archival pigment print
14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Edition of 3 + 1 AP
Misty, 2020archival pigment print
14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Edition of 3 + 1 AP
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INSTALLATION VIEWS
Installation views at CHART. Photos by Elisabeth Bernstein.
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Shala Miller (b. 1993), also known as Freddie June when she sings, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio by two southerners named Al and Ruby. At around the age of 10 or 11, Miller discovered quietude, the kind you’re sort of pushed into, and then was fooled into thinking that this is where they should stay put. Since then, Miller has been trying to find their way out, and find their way into an understanding of herself and her history. She holds a BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a current MFA candidate at Bard College. She received a fellowship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2017 and was a participant in the New York Film Festival’s Artist Academy in 2019. She has been included in group shows/screenings at Helena Anrather (New York), Red Bull Arts (New York), AC Institute (New York), and Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago). Miller currently lives and works in Brooklyn. This is Miller’s first solo exhibition in New York.
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© 2023 CHART
ALL ART WORKS COPYRIGHT THE ARTIST
ALL ART WORKS COPYRIGHT THE ARTIST
PROJECTION is an initiative alongside our main gallery programming, highlighting diverse voices in intimate presentations. PROJECTION features artists in the naissance of their careers or those that have been overlooked, working across a variety of mediums and formats. All PROJECTION exhibitions will take place concurrently in two venues: our downstairs gallery space and online in our PROJECTION ROOM.