LAUSANNE.- On the upper level of the Kunsthalle, the sculpture The Dark Ages (1996) draws from two unexpected sources: the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick and the metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. The work presents a life-sized plastic strawberry atop a miniature building, creating a deliberate clash in scale. This disorientation recalls de Chirico’s late paintings, where fruit in the foreground ambiguously appears either strangely monumental or oddly close. The idea of spatial and psychological inversion also runs through Dick’s 1954 short story Small Town. Its protagonist, Verne, builds a scale model of his hometown in his basement — an escape from his bleak daily life. But once Verne completes the model, any further changes transform the actual town. With this Verne emerges as an omnipotent tyrant. When I first read the story, I was already working with landscape sculptures using model railroad houses. What began as a playful nod to childhood model-building evolved into repetitive labor. This shift — from hobby to obligation — echoed Dick’s themes of power, fantasy, and alienation. I even titled one of my works Woodland, after the fictional town. On the lower floor, I’m exhibiting recent photographs (all 2025) from my long-term series The Middle of the Day (1994–ongoing). All are taken between noon and 2 p.m. — a time associated with stillness and routine. The images, intentionally quiet, examine how time and familiarity shape our perception of the world. Echoing ideas from Freud, the Surrealists, and the Situationists, the series explores how the ordinary can become invisible through habit. For this installation, the prints are shown at one-tenth their usual scale, inviting a more intimate engagement with overlooked details.

John Miller is an artist and writer based in New York and Berlin. He has had retrospective exhibitions at Le Magasin, CNAC in Grenoble, the Kunstverein in Hamburg, the Kunsthalle Zurich, the ICA Miami, the Museum in Bellpark, Kriens, Switzerland, the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld. His publications include Mike Kelley: Educational Complex (Afterall Books, 2015), The Ruin of Exchange: Selected Writings, and The Price Club: Selected Writings (1977-1998) (both JRP-Ringier and the Consortium’s Positions series) as well as Reconstructing a Public Sphere (Walther König Verlag, 2018). Miller is a Professor of Professional Practice in Barnard College’s Art History Department.