Hayley Nichols and Nic Annette Miller: Natural Rhythms
108 Contemporary
Through Sept. 21
I was lucky enough to get out of Oklahoma’s sweltering heat recently, as my family and I spent our annual week at the Pecos River in Cowles, NM. It was the first year that we let our young boys fish. On our daily nature walk, we ventured down to the “big rock” where a little group of rainbow trout was visibly swimming below in a natural pool. Within minutes of casting the line, we hooked a fish — a beautiful six-inch rainbow. As it came hurtling out of the river, we were all screaming with excitement and delight, but the joy was quickly replaced with terror at watching my husband work to get the hook out of the fish’s mouth and back into the water. Immediately, one of our sons announced that he was done with fish and fishing, while the other was eager to get his line back in the water and catch dinner.
This experience jogged childhood memories of being in my father’s motorboat on the Long Island Sound, where we’d go for a long afternoon to fish, swim and find small sandbars. I liked the thrill of fishing, but I took my first ethical stance after watching a blue fish get thrust into a bucket on the deck of the boat, bleeding and bucking. It was not for me. I get why my son doesn’t want to eat fish anymore.
Within minutes of meeting Nic Annette Miller and Hayley Nichols at their two-person exhibition Natural Rhythms at 108 Contemporary, I was telling Nic about our fishing experience in New Mexico. This isn’t a new thing for her. Many people have shared fish memories, recipes and meditations at her Fishtallations (aka Fish Market Installations), which she has produced and performed for over ten years at farmer’s markets, craft fairs and festivals. I bet you have your own fish story. While Miller did not include a full Fish Market at 108, we did get a wall of crustaceans and fish. Sculptural serigraph prints of Spiny Lobster, Jumbo Shrimp, Cut Catfish and Sardines were all on view, along with a delicate basket of woodcut print paper sculptures of Dry Anchovies on dó paper, a handmade paper made from the inner bark of the dó tree and traditionally produced in many villages in Vietnam.
The Fishtallation sculptures were paired with Miller’s risograph pocket zines, titled Dishes with Fish Tales. Each zine shared a chapter from her collection of short stories based on meals remembered from her childhood. Her Spring Roll Buffet story ends with Miller stating, “Without the company, what ends up on my plate is no longer really feeding me; it’s unmemorable. I crave a deeper kind of nourishment.”