Cigarillos

Cigarillos (2025)

Assemblage: vintage matchbook, paperclip metal, acrylic, UV resin, deep frame, 5 × 5 in

Cigarillos is an assemblage centred on a signed vintage matchbook, mounted within a deep frame and held in place by hand-bent metal arms crafted from paperclips. Beneath it lies a pristine white surface sealed in UV resin, creating a glossy, almost liquid depth that contrasts sharply with the matte fragility of the paper object above.

The work draws direct inspiration from Andy Warhol’s signed Marlboro cigarette box, where authorship alone transformed a disposable item into an artwork. Here, the signature becomes both an assertion and a question: at what point does fixation become meaning?

For Miller, the matchbook symbolizes the immediacy of addiction—small, portable, easily overlooked. Suspended and immobilized, it can no longer be used, only observed. The piece reflects the artist’s fascination with how ordinary objects tied to habit can, when isolated and reframed, reveal the weight of the behaviours they enable.