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Birmingham City University   2008/2009

David Miller

As a form of self-analysis or catharsis, various personas are explored: including the ‘Lace Gimp’, the English Gentleman and the Dandy. These personas represent fragmented elements, like Freud's Ego and Id. I make work about or in the guise of these characters.

Dandyism and Decadent literature have been the central influences on recent work involving the decay of photographs. This serves to link the dandy’s self-objectification to photography and Barthes' writings on ‘photo-death’. The presentation of these ideas has developed technically and conceptually. Working with partially unfixed photography and touch drawings, through to video, installation and performance has made me increasingly interested in the way these mediums can be used, and made to interact. The work has become ritualistic, relating to death rehearsals and religion.