HARLAND MILLER, HATE’S OUTTA DATE!, PENGUIN PRINTS, SIGNED DIGITAL PRINT, EDITION OF 50, 2017
Hate’s Outta Date! is one of the more uplifting prints from Harland Miller’s Penguin print series (2001-), inspired by the cover designs of Vintage Penguin Classics. Miller, who’s multidisciplinary practice has a strong element of text and literature, dissects the relationship between text and image through inserting his own clever, satirical titles onto the authentically replicated dust jackets. Miller’s choice of colour is highly significant in this body of work, inspired by the original Penguin format itself. Through embedding his evocative titles, occasionally dealing with heavy or controversial topics such as death, politics, drugs, sex etc., into certain colour fields, he aims to manipulate the meaning of language, the viewer’s emotions and their reception of the work.
Hate’s Outta Date! features the trademark Penguin logo. Miller’s use of a bright mustard-yellow gives his invented title a more light-hearted, positive. Through working with layers of paint on the original cover’s high-resolution digital photograph, the resulting painting mimics the rugged look of a used book, as seen transferred onto this print.
In this exploration of text, image and form, Miller draws on a range of artistic influences from Abstract Expressionism, Colour Field and Pop Art movements, especially Master Colourist Mark Rothko. The message of this print, Hate’s Outta Date! strikes as especially powerful in that the universality of its meaning is cleverly reiterated by that of its context in the form of the widely known and loved Penguin classics.
Read more about Penguin prints by Harland Miller.
ABOUT HARLAND MILLER
Harland Miller is a British writer and artist, born in Yorkshire in 1964, best known for producing a series of paintings based on Penguin book covers, including International Lonely Guy and Fuck Art Let’s Dance. Miller’s work explores the relationship between words and images. His paintings, sculptures and mix-media artworks combine the two to comment on the frequent disconnect between representation and reality. Learn more about Harland Miller.