Hans Miles

MFA | Ceramics

ARTIST BIO

I’m a potter and sculptor from a small town nestled in the craggy granite, shivering pines and listlessness of central Arizona. My work pertains to the livingness of objects, the magnitudes that exist within them and the body’s interplay with the other. 

I received my BFA from Arizona State University – making mostly pottery, then transitioned into sculpture during my time working at a ceramic sewer pipe factory. My pottery practice is aimed at fitting an entire world in a small object; my sculptural practice is intended to fit one person in a forest of objects. 

I’m passionate about art-making, educating, learning and the Phoenix Suns.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My current body of work seeks to present the viewer with a tableau of human scaled objects that exhibit corporeal physicality and the suggestion of self-ownership. In static engagement, in halted propinquity, like a frozen gathering these pieces behave as “nearly known objects” and are interrupted by our presence. Their otherness is amplified in their non-objective forms that linger on the periphery of definition, but their atavistic texture is intended to invite touch and connection. Always the other, always at arm’s length, yet calling to be pressed tightly against our palms and fingertips.

I’m curious as to where the livingness lies. The pre-composed mud seems to hold nearly no living qualities- so is the impression contained in the object? Is the recognition somewhere in the middle? Is this all happening behind the eyes? The objects are dead stone yet also a collection of moving atoms, an archive of energy and actively participating with our thoughts and bodies – this is the paradox of material existence. 

I’m haunted by our physical, visual and perceptive relationship with objects – the mass they quietly lock up – the interplay they foster with our bodies – the veiled expression they share, enact upon us and withhold – as well as the magnitudes they conceal behind their cunning ability to play dumb. I create ceramic sculpture using a labor intensive, system oriented and intrasubjective practice – engaging with the mercurial nature of self as well as the voyeuristic, perceptive and haptic qualities of material agency. 

Online

Dryer 14