Juliette Milne
Maureen and Angela
2007
bronze
Juliette Milne’s works at Brick Bay are one-off cast bronzes. They develop a theme that she has tracked through much of her career.
Her Brick Bay works focus on the Nikau palm, particularly on the ‘bowl’ at the base of each frond. This is but one of the characteristics of the Nikau. There are the growth rings marking time on the trunk, strings of seeds like beads, and then at the base of the frond, a bowl like a pregnant belly, protects the underlying growth, the next generation. Milne integrates this form with the idea of the discarded fronds that fall from the palm, some catching on other plants.
Juliette Milne has created two works for the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. Angela is a Nikau bowl caught mid-descent, suspended from a tree. It is threaded with a chain and suspended from a living branch as though caught by its own frond or by a vine. The second work, Maureen, another Nikau bowl, is slightly larger and, as if part of a family, is placed on the ground directly under the tree from which Angela is suspended.
Juliette Milne’s works suggest a narrative. They reflect her fascination with life cycles and the patterns of nature. She uses the forms of the natural environment to explore her interests in notions of motherhood, genealogy and the relationships that exist between generations. The Nikau bowl encloses the next new frond within its protective shell; it shelters and protects the future, the next generation of growth.
We are each the product of our past and hold the seed to our future. As the titles indicate, metaphorically Milne’s work references women protecting and nurturing the next generation, yet simultaneously suggests the loss of those who have gone before.
Dr. Robin Woodward
