Richard Hoeck & John Miller

Anna Meliksetian and Michael Briggs are pleased to present a collaboration by Richard Hoeck and John Miller, Something for Everyone.

The installation features a 30-minute narrative film and three sculptural objects. The film is a series of vignettes, a picaresque journey of UPS deliveryman Ken Kenwood. Following Kenwood through a frustrating day, beginning with Kenwood’s rude awaking after dreams of a luxury life of mansions and champagne, to the news that he has to make his rounds on foot with a hand truck rather than his usual UPS van, the narrative map’s the delivery man’s route, and his encounters with his girlfriend and his various customers. The banality of the day-to-day routine is contrasted with meetings with his customers, some erotically charged but ultimately unfulfilled, some adversarial and difficult, leading to frustration and ennui. Referencing numerous styles and genres, from the 70’s soft core film trope of the “pizza delivery boy” and Love American Style to Wenders, Fassbinder, and Tati via Benny Hill and Philip K. Dick, the film has a soundtrack featuring glam rock band The Sweet and strings composed by Miller using a simple, now-outdated software program. Filmed in the working class districts of Vienna, and featuring cameos by Vienna based artists such as Hans Weigand and Heimo Zobernig among others, the work is a study of consumer society, and the intersection between corporate brands, consumer products and the individual’s identity.

Hoeck and Miller have had a 20 year long history of collaborations including an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna and one at KW/Kunstwerke, Berlin as well being included in various group shows in Europe and New York. This is the first time that one of their collaborative installations has been shown on the West Coast and it is their first solo collaborative show in the US. Something for Everyone is the result of a 4-year collaboration between Hoeck, Miller, and producer Bernhard Riff.