Nancy Winship Milliken

The Lighthouse

I started my process by thinking about Boston as the home of the first lighthouse in North America. About how the materials represent the industries of New England. How the wool contrasts with the solid massive materials of the plaza. How the wool moves in the wind and twists around the grid of the graceful scaffolding. But then the work comes out of the studio, interacts with its surroundings, and continues the process I began. It becomes much more than its materials. In this case, perhaps, The Lighthouse is about opening up. Opening up the impenetrable forms of buildings or of ourselves. The thick walls of a lighthouse are gone, and we witness the internal structure allowing the light to shine, not just at the apex, but throughout its length.

To learn more about the sculpture visit http://nancymilliken.com/studio-blog and www.nancymilliken.com/the-lighthouse.

Nancy Winship Milliken, The Lighthouse. 2013 Raw wool from New England farms, scaffolding, debris netting, steel, fishing net, rope, 72’ x 8’ x 6’

Made from construction scaffolding and raw wool collected from New England farms, The Lighthouse represents intertwined elements of the New England landscape, architecture, economy and people. Milliken combines archetypal human structures with ephemeral, organic materials such as sheep’s wool.

The Meaning of Materials

Saturday July 13th 11am. Meet at the entrance to the Mary Baker Eddy Library & Museum, 210 Mass Ave and walk around the sculptures that are installed on the plaza and end at the bookstore, where the participants can purchase the catalog. The tour is free and open to the public.

Nancy Winship Milliken and Rosalyn Driscoll both work with natural materials--Nancy with wool and Rosalyn with rawhide. They will explore the meanings of the materials used in the sculptures of the exhibit, Convergence, as well as in the plaza itself. This talk will take place during the Outside the Box Festival in Boston, outsidetheboxboston.org

Update: Kendra Nordin, employee of the Christian Science Monitor, Boston, talks about the sculpture "The Lighthouse" by Nancy Winship Milliken, in this video. This sculpture is one piece of a collection of art in the exhibit, Convergence, in Boston, Massachusetts. This exhibit is cosponsored by the Boston Sculptors Gallery and The First Church of Christ, Scientist. You can see the exhibit from May 1-October 31, 2013, at 210 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston's Back Bay.