Tim Miller (performance artist)

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Tim Miller
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birth_name =
birth_date = 1958-09-22
birth_place = Pasadena, California
residence =
nationality = American
known_for = Performance art
occupation = Performer, writer, performance teacher
employer = UCLA
home_town = Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California
party =
boards =
religion =
spouse = Alistair McCartney
partner =
website = http://members.aol.com/millertale
footnotes =

Tim Miller (b. September 22, 1958, Pasadena, California) is an American performance artist and writer, whose pieces frequently involve gay identity and immigration issues. He was one of the NEA Four, four performance artists whose National Endowment for the Arts grants were vetoed in 1990 by NEA chair John Frohnmayer.

Biography

He was born in Pasadena, but grew up in nearby Whittier.

Miller has developed shows based on his personal life as a gay man and as an activist. A member of ACT UP and other campaigning organizations, Miller has participated in numerous demonstrations to call for funding of AIDS research and treatment and to promote equal rights. His civil disobedience has led to his arrest on several occasions. [(Gott, 1994) p.150]

Career

Miller's interest in performance began in high school, where he took classes in theater and dance. He played the lead role of John Proctor in Lowell High School's production of "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. At nineteen he moved to New York and studied dance with Merce Cunningham.

In 1980, Miller joined with Charles Moulton and Charles Dennis to found P.S. 122, a space for performance art. The name derives from the former school building that houses the project.

In 1987, Miller returned to California and founded another performance space, Highways, in Santa Monica.

In 1997 Miller published "Shirts & Skin", a compilation of personal stories that he had told in his shows over the previous decade. He also launched a show of the same name.

Miller took on a new topic, immigration rights for gay and lesbian partners of American citizens, in "Glory Box" (1999). The immigration issue is a personal cause as Alistair McCartney, his partner since 1994, is Australian.

In 2002 Miller published "Body Blows", a collection of scripts from six of his shows with associated essays.

Miller returned to the theme of the problems of Americans with same-sex life partners in "Us" in 2003. The title refers both to his relationship with McCartney and to the U.S., whose laws could prevent them from being together. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1043566 Through Thick and Thin] , Sebastian Cordoba, 2007, is a documentary on US immigration laws for same-sex couples which features Miller and McCartney as one of the seven couples.]

Productions

Simple timeline|event-title=Title
1981|Live Boys, created with John Bernd
1982|Postwar
1983|Cost of Living
1984|Democracy in America
1985|Buddy Systems, created with Doug Sadownick
1987|Some Golden States
1989|Stretch Marks
1991|Sex/Love/Stories
1992|My Queer Body
1994|Naked Breath
1996|Fruit Cocktail
1997|Shirts & Skin
1999|Glory Box
2002|Body Blows
2003|Us
2006|1001 Bedscite web |url=http://www.timeout.com/london/gay/features/2977.html |title=Queer performance artist Tim Miller talks bed-hopping and whimsy with Time Out|publisher=Time Out |accessdate=2008-02-07 |date=2007-06-04 |last=Burston|first=Paul]

Footnotes

References

*cite book |author=Gott, Ted |title=Don't leave me this way: art in the age of AIDS |publisher=National Gallery of Australia |year=1994 |isbn=0-642-13030-2
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External links

* [http://www.glbtq.com/arts/miller_t.html Tim Miller entry in GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture]