Absence and presence, from the cast to the negative, Colin Miner finds himself in stillness.
Vancouver looked like a promising city to develop a photographic-artistic practice with a strong visual arts and art history faculty working at UBC. Colin will continue to pursue and develop his artistic practice and theoretical research within the MFA program under the guidance of Ken Lum and John O’Brian.
Colin returned to Canada having worked for three years in Beijing China, an experience that allowed him to learn more about Chinese culture and art. “I was very fortunate to have spent that time overseas,” he says, “to see a country literally changing before my eyes, to experience parts of its immense potential for growth and cultural influence.”
The first year at UBC in the MFA program was quite challenging in a variety of ways. “My knowledge and practice, both artistic and academic, have developed in unanticipated directions. Notably, my research on the iconic figure of Dracula as represented within Bram Stoker’s novel.”
The theme of absence and presence was his next inquiry, in which he examined the different works of Rachel Whiteread, Thomas Demand, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Jeff Wall. Colin’s own work has focused and developed on the themes of stillness, an entrapment of time, the cast and the negative, and falseness.
From AHVA website.