For the first time, after more than 20 years, Ranger Mills is once again exhibiting his artworks. He has decided to enter his work in the CP Open Biennial 2003.

Ranger Mills, a New York artist, chose to break off his relationship with the world of art in 1978, and has not taken part in any exhibition anywhere since then "Because the work then became more influenced by the questions arrived at in the course of working on the last work and less in relation to what was going on around me."

Ranger Mills then journeyed to the Middle East and to India, where he met Aruna and married. Since 1996, he has lived a nomad's life with his family, moving frequently from place to place. For almost three years, he lived in Jakarta, before moving on to Shanghai.

In Jakarta, he continued to work creatively in an effort to forget the sense of art he had become familiar with. "I don't see any strong basis for a concept of art. For every concept that has ever been formulated for art, art has destroyed it. Writer's who advocate a certain art form as being 'ahead of its time' point to the inherent fallacy of the concept of there being a concept of art. The phrase 'being ahead of its time' means that art is largely un-understood by those existing contemporaneously with its creation."

At his home in Jakarta, Ranger Mills' works could be found neatly arranged in almost every corner. These works took not only the forms of sculptures, drawings, prints or paintings, but there were also several functional pieces, such as metal containers and boxes.

All of these works, whatever their form, appear to have been created with sophisticated techniques. "I use conceptual understanding with regard of tools; techniques, materials, processes, procedures and most importantly with regard of craftsmanship and the quality of the object. But the objective of my work with these concepts is to get to where I don't know where the work is going."

Ranger Mills tries to enter into a territory of exploration that gives rise to a discourse of cross-cultural aesthetics within the development of fine art theory. At one point during his stay in Indonesia, he ran across six female batik makers in the process of finishing up a batik fabric that they had been working on for decades. "Now what concept are they operating from? I would say none other than perhaps that work is necessary in order to live. The overwhelming quality of their work comes from nothing other than decades of close attention paid to what they are doing in their work and refining their movements in exact proportion to developing sensitivity and advancement of their capacity of discernment."

Jim Supangkat

Ranger Mills was Born in New York City, June 1957.
At time lives in Shanghai, China.

1999
You made masks for William Teo?
I made four horse heads for a production of the play Equus, at "The Substation", Singapore, in 1999. The heads were the only prop in the production. Each head was made to fit each dancer's head shape, dance movement and personality.

2001-2003
You made iron sculptures for Grace Siregar?
The sculptures I did for Grace was shown in National Gallery, Jakarta in some all women show in 2001. After that I participated in Grace show at Jakarta Art Center, in February 2003. Mainly in that I was appearing as a body in her video work. I also did some installation for the two pieces in the show.

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