When Jill Miller found a photograph of her face had been used without her consent on an Ariel Pink album cover, she could have addressed the violation in any number of ways. Calling it out online maybe, or even bringing suit. But why do that, she reckoned, when, as an artist, she could respond with an art project?<\/span><\/p>\n In 2006, musician Ariel Pink released<\/span> Thrash and Burn<\/span><\/i>, a 36-track compilation of his late-\u201890s lo-fi experiments, its cover featuring a close-up image of Miller\u2019s face. Across her forehead was scrawled his name \u201cARIEL,\u201d and beside her face the word \u201cSTINKS.\u201d The cover art was credited to visual artist Michael Rashkow; its subject remained unnamed.<\/span><\/p>\n During lockdown, Miller came across her own face on Pink\u2019s record sleeve, and was confused. She had no idea how he had come to possess the photograph\u2014and had certainly not granted permission for her image to be used on his album cover.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In subsequent DMs with Pink over Instagram, the L.A.-based singer simply directed Miller to Rashkow, who turned out to be her former classmate at UCLA. Back in the early 2000s, Miller was earning her MFA at the university and hosting regular open studio visits, where Rashkow likely snapped her picture.<\/span><\/p>\n The cover of Ariel Pink\u2019s Thrash and Burn<\/em> (2006), featuring a photograph of artist Jill Miller. Photo: HEM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That image would somehow end up in the hands of Jason Grier, the director of the music label Human Ear Music, which released <\/span>Thrash and Burn<\/span><\/i> (then reissued it in 2013). He <\/span>claims<\/span><\/a> his \u201cnext-door neighbor\u201d designed the album\u2019s cover, before he sought and received Pink\u2019s sign-off on the artwork, though not Miller\u2019s authorization.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy initial thought was, \u2018how rude,\u2019\u201d Miller told Artnet News of her reaction to seeing her face on Pink\u2019s album sleeve. \u201cAnd my follow-up thought was, \u2018how predictable.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Her next move? Creating 50 alternate album covers of <\/span>Thrash and Burn<\/span><\/i>, intended to replace\u2014and parody\u2014the original.<\/span><\/p>\n Generated using A.I. software and released as NFTs, these digital works<\/a> are grouped into four themes, largely centering Pink in a variety of absurd scenarios. There\u2019s Ariel Pink as a sad clown, as a TSA agent, working at Walmart, with a pet skunk, and on a field trip to D.C. (a scene referencing the January 6 U.S. capitol riot, where <\/span>Pink was in attendance<\/span><\/a>), his face often warped by the algorithm. <\/span>Every cover bears the phrase \u201cARIEL STINKS\u201d for its added \u201ccomedic potential,\u201d per Miller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Field Trip to DC<\/em>, from the series \u201cAriel Stinks (50 Alternative Album Covers to Thrash and Burn).\u201d Photo: Jill Miller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first part of Miller\u2019s \u201cAriel Stinks\u201d NFT series <\/span>has been released on crypto art marketplace Taex in <\/span>one-for-one editions<\/span><\/a>, priced at 0.39 ETH (about $624) each; a second drop is planned for February 2. One cover has also been made <\/span>available for free<\/span><\/a> as a digital download.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMaking a series of NFTs felt like the right response to a 16-year-old album cover with my stolen image on it,\u201d said Miller. \u201cI wanted the series to exist in a form that resonated with 2023\u2014which is digital music.\u201d Buyers of the NFTs, too, will retain commercial rights to the work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The medium of NFTs further befits an artist, also the Assistant Professor in Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley, whose practice has been intertwined with new media. In her work, she has sought to challenge contemporary perceptions with the help of technologies from <\/span>augmented reality<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>3D rendering<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>the internet<\/span><\/a>. Her foray into NFTs, she said, expands on those explorations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs an artist who experiments with new technologies, I was curious about NFTs existing as art without the physical object,\u201d she explained. \u201cI see them as being conceptually linked to early photography, video, and other art forms that confused (and later delighted) the art world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ariel Stars in a Horror Film<\/em>, from the series \u201cAriel Stinks (50 Alternative Album Covers to Thrash and Burn).\u201d Photo: Jill Miller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And A.I., for that matter, is \u201canother tool in the artist\u2019s box,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI think it could be used as part of a studio practice, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s essential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For \u201c<\/span>Ariel Stinks<\/span>,\u201d she used a text-to-image generator to \u201cimagine a number of ways that Ariel could literally stink,\u201d before editing the output in post-production. A generated image featuring Pink on a For Wanted poster, for example, was reworked to include a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft\u2019s <\/span>A Vindication on the Rights of Woman<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n The technology, too, served as a mediating layer between artist and subject, according to Miller. \u201cMaking a portrait is quite an intimate exercise,\u201d she said. \u201cI used the A.I. to run interference between Ariel Pink and me\u2026 The A.I. acts as a buffer between us, so I don\u2019t have to look too closely for too long.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Miller is of course well-aware of the <\/span>copyright litigation<\/span><\/a> currently swirling<\/span><\/a> generative A.I., and has covered her legal bases. According to her attorney, M.J. Bogatin, an intellectual property lawyer based in California, \u201c<\/span>Ariel Stinks\u201d<\/span> falls under the fair use exemption of U.S. copyright law, as the work would be considered parody. \u201cShe absolutely has the creative license to use Pink\u2019s image, to adulterate it the way she has,\u201d he told <\/span>Billboard<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Ariel works at Walmart<\/em>, from the series \u201cAriel Stinks (50 Alternative Album Covers to Thrash and Burn).\u201d Photo: Jill Miller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All 50 \u201c<\/span>Ariel Stinks\u201d<\/span> covers will be compiled and released as <\/span>a coffee-table book<\/span><\/a>, the culmination of Miller\u2019s project to reclaim her image, while examining the bounds of appropriation. The act, she said, \u201ccalls into question outdated values or cultural assumptions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe record preceded the #MeToo movement,\u201d she added, \u201cand back then men were still getting away with things that would not be allowed today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Grier, for his part, has apologized for \u201cunwisely [choosing the photograph of Miller] as the cover art for the release.\u201d Pink\u2014who, January 6 aside, has long courted controversy by spouting statements that have been <\/span>deemed racist and misogynist<\/span><\/a>\u2014called <\/span>the project<\/span> \u201ca prank\u201d and \u201ca sort of snarky bit of revenge,\u201d adding that it exists \u201cto make me look bad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize he called it a prank!\u201d said Miller about Pink\u2019s response. \u201cThat\u2019s funny, but not surprising. He can\u2019t really acknowledge it as art without accepting the underlying concept behind it, which is that he authorized his record label to use my image without my permission.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/app\/news-upload\/2023\/01\/ariel-stinks-dc-1024x1024.jpg\")
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