Drawing on Dada, Surrealism, and theater design, Michael C. McMillen makes room-sized installations that include sculptures, videos, evocative lighting, and assemblages of found objects. McMillen’s imaginary worlds address decay, illusion, and longing. For Pavilion of Rain (1987), one of his earlier installations, McMillen constructed an environment that featured a rainstorm, a corrugated metal shack in a 30-foot pool of water, and a bridge. Recent installations incorporate shipwrecks and abandoned lighthouses. In 2011, the Oakland Museum of Art presented the 40-year retrospective of McMillen’s work, “Train of Thought,” with a titular installation, evocative of the Industrial Age, comprising an elevated conveyor belt depositing shards of alphabet pasta extracted from an imaginary mine in the gallery wall.
Drawing on Dada, Surrealism, and theater design, Michael C. McMillen makes room-sized installations that include sculptures, videos, evocative lighting, and assemblages of found objects. McMillen’s imaginary worlds address decay, illusion, and longing. For Pavilion of Rain (1987), one of his earlier installations, McMillen constructed an environment that featured a rainstorm, a corrugated metal shack in a 30-foot pool of water, and a bridge. Recent installations incorporate shipwrecks and abandoned lighthouses. In 2011, the Oakland Museum of Art presented the 40-year retrospective of McMillen’s work, “Train of Thought,” with a titular installation, evocative of the Industrial Age, comprising an elevated conveyor belt depositing shards of alphabet pasta extracted from an imaginary mine in the gallery wall.