Varied and Alive: Nancy Winship Milliken, is a solo outdoor exhibition of 4, nature-centric , Monumental Sculptures set in a pollinator meadow at SHELBURNE MUSEUM in Shelburne, Vermont. Winship Milliken’s 4 monumental post-and-beam structures feature different natural materials intrinsic to the land, all of which explore themes related to sustainability: horsehair, wool, beeswax, and driftwood. Activated by the wind and sun, each sculpture uniquely moves, changes, and adapts to the environment, inspiring community conversations surrounding our roles within and relationships to nature.
Earth Glow, 15’x17’. 2020–22,
Charred wood post and beam, steel cable, fishing line, white beeswax, and hardware. In collaboration with Eliot Hays Lothrop.
Earth Glow grew out of the artist’s multiyear exploration with a new, challenging material: beeswax. “In a way, to cope with our stay-at-home order two years ago, I started rolling beeswax into spheres,” Winship Milliken explains. “In a process of accumulation of both time and spheres, I have bins of them.” Based in a multisensory and meditative process—common aspects of Winship Milliken’s artistic practice—the artist heats the beeswax until the sensitive material becomes malleable and can be shaped into orb-like objects.The beeswax glows and absorbs heat during warm, sun-soaked days and subtly undulates in the breeze on windy ones, reacting and adapting to its location. In place at Shelburne Museum, Earth Glow highlights the ecological and agricultural importance of bees and other pollinators and extends a visual reference to the sun’s power in relation to the Museum’s two solar arrays.
Lake Bones, 15’x17’, 2021–22
Charred wood post and beam, Lake Champlain shoreline and tributary driftwood, limestone, water glass, and steel. In collaboration with Eliot Hays Lothrop
The driftwood Winship Milliken gathered for Lake Bones was harvested along the shorelines of Lake Champlain and its tributary streams and rivers. After water, wind, and sun first shape and smooth the wood into abstracted forms, Winship Milliken returns the timber to the land and to its original, upright orientation. The artist honors this transformative process and the wood’s new identity by applying a white limestone wash. Coated in this material commonly found in Shelburne, the irregularly shaped driftwood is unified through its new sheen and shared metamorphic journey.
While there are many ecological benefits of both living trees in watersheds and dead trees that end up as driftwood in streams and lakes—including providing habitats for insects—Lake Bones challenges viewers to consider the importance of the forests, waterways, and watersheds themselves. In the face of climate change, Winship Milliken says, healthy watersheds, forests, floodplains, riparian areas and wetlands provide ways to “increase resiliency and reduce [the] impacts from flooding and stormwater.”
Meadow Breath, 15’x17’, 2021–22
Charred wood post and beam, raw white New England wool, fishing net, and hardware. In collaboration with Eliot Hays Lothrop.
Meadow Breath gives form to the invisible as wind breathes new life into a woven net of local raw wool. Evocative of a flock of sheep grazing in a field, the wool in the sculpture moves by expanding and contracting with direction from the wind. Over time, Meadow Breath will change its form in response to the natural elements, from tonal shifts caused the sunlight peeking through tufts of wool to textural evolutions from the felting action of rain and wind. Through its adaptation to place, Meadow Breath is a reminder of how humankind has influenced and forever altered our natural environment, from the changing climate to expanding urban development. More specifically, according to Winship Milliken, Meadow Breath “references one important stage of the natural history of New England—largely forested areas converted to open agricultural landscape for sheep grazing—and it opens a conversation about the sustainable future of these landscapes.”
Pasture Song, 15’x17’, 2018–22
Charred wood post and beam, fishing net, white horsehair, and hardware. In collaboration with Eliot Hays Lothrop.
Pasture Song is a kinetic tapestry of horsehair, tied into thousands of cello bow hair bundles attached to netting. Energized by the sun and wind, the fibrous strands shimmer and stretch outward, extending their reach beyond the structural netting and wooden frame. Recalling a herd of horses or a flowing field of grass, Pasture Song celebrates nature’s leading role and immense power as it influences the sculpture’s varied tones, shapes, and movements.
