Michael in Black (in absentia)
Public Fiction at the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial, Sharjah,
with Nicole Miller, Jared Sexton and Negar Azimi.
November 9th - 30th, 2018
Credits: The artworks are courtesy of Nicole Miller & Koenig and Clinton Gallery.
Special thanks to laserists Zak Forrest and Pieterjan Ruysch.
Writing courtesy/copyright Jared Sexton and Negar Azimi.
On the occasion of the first Fikra Biennial in Sharjah, UAE, Public Fiction stage an
exhibition and program manifesting content for a new issue of its annual journal.
While past iterations of the journal have focused on a single theme—as viewed by an
aggregation of artists and writers—this issue will focus on a single work:
Nicole Miller's Michael In Black (2018).
The sculpture, absent at the Fikra Biennial, is a bronze cast of Michael Jackson’s
kneeling body, poured from a mold that was once applied directly to his skin.
The talismanic item is a segue to the consideration of the pop star, pop music, and pop
culture as vehicles for larger contemporary concerns (philosophical, political, and otherwise)
as well as to the significance of their distribution among large publics, seducing large audiences.
"Michael" is both subject and object in this nascent publication.
On view at the biennial, two new laser works by Miller (For Now (2018) and Michael
in Lavender (2018)) invoke the sculpture’s original form, tracing its absence, and accompany
an in-progress publication featuring writing on the work's themes by Jared Sexton and Negar Azimi.
The Fikra Graphic Design Biennial 01: Ministry of Graphic Design is curated by Prem Krishnamurthy,
Emily Smith, and Na Kim. "The Department of Flying Saucers," is curated by Hala Al-Ani
of Mobius Studio.
Ministry of Graphic Design
Bank of Sharjah (eL Seed building)
Heart of Sharjah, UAE
Additionally: On November 12, 2018, from 8:00–9:00 pm in Sharjah, Public Fiction founder Lauren Mackler
wove together exhibition, publication, and their overlapping concerns through a performance-lecture
for invited local guests.
