For the group of works entitled hard:edged, Gerold Miller uses commercially available profile strips with an identical basic shape; they only vary in thickness depending on the size of the object being created. The color is selected from the range offered by a spray shop. The paint application is perfect. The personal element, i.e. any form of brushstroke, is deliberately avoided by the artist. This working practice aims to direct the viewer’s gaze to the pictorial object itself and to raise fundamental questions about the function and perception of (abstract) images. Do these have to seem flat and be painted flat, or is not every painting always a three-dimensional object that occupies space? What role does the wall play as a support for paintings? It is essential, as the artist makes clear with the yellow and red structure that exposes the wall surface behind it.
Gerold Miller breaks down the classic image format into its individual components and, in this analysis, demonstrates the limits and possibilities of pictoriality. Since the 1990s, he has been exploring what constitutes an image in the border area between sculpture, plastic object, and relief. In doing so, Miller connects to questions that have been repeatedly asked and answered differently by numerous artists since the 1950s.
