Work samples

  • Ritual Cleansing
    Ritual Cleansing
    This is a headdress in a series of headdresses addressing the issues of potential appropriation in the use or borrowing of synthetic hair in contemporary america, given our mixed history in relation to the black body.

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About Elizabeth

Baltimore City  

Liz Miller is a second-generation fine artist. Dance/ Performance art is part of her repertoire; she performs locally and internationally  (various canadian cities from 2002-2005, Monrovia, Liberia in 2001 and in Vizianagaram, India in 2015). Her fine art has been shown nationwide but also internationally in Japan, Indonesia, and England. She has a B. A. in Art and Design from Towson University and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been a teaching artist for the… more

View Elizabeth's Resume
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Sculptural Hair Paintings

Mythology and Folklore with afro-diasporic representation is the basis of Liz Miller's sculptural painting explorations. Much of our world is saturated with the default of the white body representing many deities and entities in physical format. Liz has been seeking to diversify the imagery associated with mythological, religious and folk stories. Beginning with the zodiac signs and expanding to an Afro-greek series, mermaids, Mami Wata and then the Orishas, Liz has been able to use her canvas as another way of storytelling research.

  • Scorpio
    Scorpio

    Scorpio zodiac sign personfied into celestial blackness.

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    • Hair Garden

    This installation is all about connecting blackness with landscape. We see a root system of hair tracks under an oppressive white tile structure. Above the white tiles we see a variety of imagined plants which celebrate the range of ways that blackness presents itself. Today and yesterday’s black population in America has struggled against racism but more importantly the unseen systemic structures at play. These structures manifest tangibly in many ways and must be disassembled in order to build equitable structures which benefit all people. This installation is usually installed by a window in order to allow the ‘plants’ to receive a flood of light in and through the pieces. Another version of this installation has hexagonal mirrored tiles under the hair track root system with the white tiles removed.
    • Hair Garden
      Hair Garden

    • Anchor Points

    Exhibition Description:
    The theme of my installation Anchor Points is “membership,” particularly as that concept applies to cultural groups.  What qualifies one for initiation?  Is it by birth alone, or can one be inducted by adopting specific roles and customs; and, if the latter, does that member ever truly "fit in"?  What dues must be paid?  Can elders be questioned?  Is seniority relevant in relation to one's membership status? Anchor Points creates an imposing array of traversable webs spanning floor to ceiling.  Visitors will question whether they have permission to step within the artistic perimeter.  Their decision to engage the work, in fact, is a vital part of the piece. When we approach artifacts related to groups to which we do not belong to, do we question or honor perceived boundaries? What language can I as an outsider employ in comparison to the language they use amongst themselves? This concept continues on through many touch points.



    This installation is two-fold: after the viewer is challenged to enter the installation's inner-space, the adventurous ones will encounter word phrases embroidered in the center pieces of the hair webs. These phrases, which are meant to be anchor points, are familiar to the artist's upbringing in the African-American community. To be a person of color in America is to embody many attributes of membership. Each web evinces the feeling of being stretched to its limits, but the phrase at the center has the power to reaffirm the person at his or her core. For instance, each phrase is taken from a different pillar of the African-American community.  For example, "You might be a black Bill Gates in the making" is a quote from Beyonce's song Formation. Other phrases are taken from the film Black Panther, a gospel song by Israel Houghton, the African-American national anthem, and a quote from Maxine Waters. Each is intended to serve as grounding phrase which might empower an African-American. Music, faith, politics, and cinema are all major spheres in which African-Americans from various upbringings and classes unite around.



    This piece may be accompanied by a performance art piece in which the artist engages the audience and asks them if they felt they had “permission" to enter the space.  When questioning one’s own membership, one is compelled to ask what constrained or challenges the viewer about their right to participate and how this directly relates to membership to various groups that we interact in everyday. Whether that be class, culture, age, or interest- these groups have rules, dues, obligations, and benefits.
     
     
     
     

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    • blackbillgatescloseup.JPG
      blackbillgatescloseup.JPG
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    • You are Hair

    Hair is a part of all of us. It is anchored in our skin.  We live
    within it.  African American hair styles and designs have enjoyed a rich,
    multi-hemispheric tradition spanning centuries that are both the product of
    and a response to the systemic racism and atrocities which African-
    Americans and their ancestors are all too well acquainted.  Hair techniques
    and treatments have been a slow-developing industry, often employed not only to
    make black hair more manageable but more like the “Caucasian ideal.”   
            Many African-Americans have warm memories of hair braiding at home,
    with relatives, or at the salon. The wig shop and beauty store are staple
    locations evocative of identity and opportunity. Nevertheless, the hair
    that one can “afford” and the styles chosen are symbols of class. To
    braid and integrate fake hair are valued skill sets. We are beyond the boom
    of chemical perms, with current styles being braids and crochets.  African-
    American hair color, texture, and style, no matter the cost, are distinctly
    self-expressions of identity, especially for those who are economically
    struggling. 
            News coverage has accurately reported how societal rules
    disproportionately restrict black hair care choices in the workplace. In
    many cases we see outright discrimination, especially in regards to
    dreadlocks in corporate environments or the military.  In a recent lawsuit
    against Hooters, an African-American woman prevailed after being fired for
    dyeing her hair a color that differed from its natural hue, when Caucasian
    co-workers had not been held to the same standard.

            The work explores the connection between African roots and
    the contemporary United States.  African textile patterning serves as inspiration for
    the wire headdresses wrapped in synthetic hair and thread. To amplify this
    follicular celebration, the hair is used in a domestic fashion appearing on furniture
    and modeling familiar structures like windows and carpets. Pausing
    before the work, the viewer becomes part of it. Based on the observer’s
    ethnicity, he or she may engage in small-scale cultural appropriation
    simply by viewing the work or participating by trying on the headdresses in
    front of the mirror. This initiates a conversation with the audience in
    with respect to the question of whose cultural traditions belong to whom.
    Hopefully viewers will engage the question of how to be more celebratory of
    our differences in culture without appropriating them.
     
    This collection/installation is titled 'You are Hair'. This explores the concept of home by displaying ready-made home goods adorned or covered with hair. Home is intrinsic to the black experience of 'getting their hair done'. Hair is often done by family members in home. This private affair is unique in variety from family to family, but has many things in common of course, from hair to technique, to body position and trendy adorning elastics and charms. These home goods are stand-ins for the bodies who participate in their traditions. The actual individual parts of this daily and weekly ritual has evolved over the years. This is due in part to discoveries of the damaging effects of chemical treatments, the natural hair movement and protective styles.

    List of Objects:

    Hair Lamp: 8” x 24”

    Hair Chair: 18” x 36”

    Table:  20” x 30”

    Red dreadlock wall piece: 16” x 20”

    White and black wall piece: 18” x 25”

    Head piece blond:  8” x 14”

    Head piece brown: 8” x 12”

    Headpiece black: 12” x 16”

    Headpiece blueblack: 11” x 24”

    Potpourri hair:  4”x 4”x 5”

    Photo collection: 40 photos

    Windowsill: 3” x 17”

    Hair curtain: 8” x 14”

    Braids for window: 5 measuring 25” each

    Mirror: 17”x 24”

    Jewelry triangular red dread/blue scarab earrings: 3”x3”

    Jewelry blue scarab earrings/black dreadlock: 1”x8”

     

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    • flavorofthemonth.JPG
      flavorofthemonth.JPG
      synthetic hair, dyed and draped in ready made chair
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    • Hair Headdress Sketches

    These are sketches of possible future headdresses. For the film, Ubuntu, performers were sent a video of the sketches, to choose one. Their chosen sketch was made for them to wear for the filming. 
    • Afrofurist Deity
      Afrofurist Deity
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    • Hair Headdresses

    • Dreadlock crown
      Dreadlock crown
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    • UBUNTU film

     UBUNTU is a South African noun meaning ‘humanity’. More specifically it references an African philosophy ‘I am because we are’.

    This film is a collection of 6 performers transforming spaces with significant ties to slavery or present day racism in the city of Baltimore, MD. While they perform movement in these spaces, their black bodies are adorned with wearable hair art sculptures which function as sacred objects. The use of smoke is meant to tap into the energy of the ancestors who walked there while simultaneously attempting to push forward to an emancipated future. An emancipation which comes from unlocking what’s embedded with versus the traditional pathway of seeking freedom from the colonizer.

    https://youtu.be/ltIKHMZ5sG8

    • Kay at Black Wall Street
      Kay at Black Wall Street

    • Hays-Heighe House

    In December of 2023, I performed a ritual cleansing ceremony at Harford Community College, at their historical site known as the 'Hays-Heighe House'. This was a recorded outdoor performance, which was staged behind the house after dark. I was illuminated through hand-held lights and a wood pallet made into a light-up stage (a product of my design). The soundtrack to my performance was my voice pre-recorded, speaking poetically about finding our feet, feeling grounding, and inviting participation in certain parts as well as telling the history of the site. At one point we imagined the names of the enslaved in this location. The 1860 census only listed the enslaved at this location by gender and age so the recording read each listing with allotted time to imagine a name for this individual who was on this very site 168 years ago. I used colored chalk, held in an abalone shell from a local body of water, and pinched some chalk into the air for each individual who was not allowed their personhood in 1860.

    Surrounding the stage in the grass, are battery-operated votive candles, 1 for each of the 31 enslaved.

    The Hays-Heighe House on the campus of Harford Community College was listed on the Underground Network as an 'escape site'. The sound art that I created telling the history of the site calls out this inaccurate way of writing about the site. The definition of the Underground Railroad Network is a series of safe houses that enslaved Africans used to escape to freedom. A site where 'enslaved africans' would run from and risk exposure, starvation, etc does not qualify a site for inclusion on the Underground Railroad. 

    This performance was documented and will be made into a film but is currently in progress. However the site has been documented through photographs, as seen here, by a Harford CC student named Mica and James Craig Photography.

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    • Performance Image 10
      Performance Image 10
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    • Public Art - Saltboxes

    • Tribute Saltbox
      Tribute Saltbox

      This saltbox design was a one-off. The community of HIghlandtown was shaken when Hoehn's Bakery was unexpectedly closed by the health dept. It could have been a temporary situation but the family decided to close their 3rd generation run business. However this business was beloved by the neighborhood so I decided to create this box, combining some imagery from a mural on the side of the bakery and updating it a little. This design was put onto a box 2 blocks away from the site of the closed bakery.

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    • School for Colored Girls: DuPont Underground: DC

    Synopsis

    This film details the history of the area of DuPont Circle in Washington D.C. A site where a ‘School for Colored Girls‘ was founded by the white female abolitionist,  Myrtilla Miner. She began teaching 6 black girls to read in a time when it was still illegal to teach the children of enslaved africans. In two months, she had 30 pupils. Over the years she would need to move her school from place to place for safety, but it all began here in DuPont Circle. Her students would eventually become teachers who would train other teachers. This legacy of literacy and equality is what Myrtilla Miner leaves behind.

    Details about the Original Live Performance

    The film was made using footage of the original live performance recorded on 3/3/23. This performance was a part of the opening reception of the exhibition ‘Cost of Living’, about the resilience of black women. The exhibit was the highest-attended exhibit ever for the Dupont Underground, located at 19 DuPont Circle, Washington D.C. Curated by Nikki Brooks.

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    • Performance Image 6
      Performance Image 6

      This image is from the moment when the stage turns off at the end of the performance, immediately before I step down. the backlight created an amazing effect that I have not seen since.

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