'Gnome' by Jess Milne

We are proud to introduce our very first artist in residence from 1st September. Our Fitzroy boutique welcomes Jess Milne, a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist currently working with ceramics.

Her practice centres on the Gnome figure as a vessel for protection, ritual, and joy. Drawing on the forgotten origins of folk figures like the Burryman, the Venus of Willendorf, the Straw Bear, Jess creates small sentinels that sit at the threshold between earnestness and magic. Gnomes are keepers of love expressed as jest, mischief, and protection, small reminders that meaning is something we remake when the original intent is forgotten.

Gnomes attempt to remedy present day overwhelm on a personal-mystical-esoteric level. They might choose mischief, magic, tricks or stillness and silence. They will always choose protection and warmth.

Rest your hands on their shoulders, you might find relief.

Gnomes or golems sit within a long genealogy of protective figures, metallurgical or mineralogical demon/gargoyle/boulder fellow conjured to ward and to care. Yet their origins blur with time, as countless modern traditions trace back to these ancient protectors. I think about the Venus of Willendorf, I want so badly to hold her in my hands and warm her up. Was she made to be carried around, warm in someone's pocket? Time forgets, so forgotten rituals or symbols are reworked when the original intent slips away. 

Warmth becomes both gesture and feeling. The gnomes emerge from the kiln precious and hot to the touch, little children or beasts cradled on cold days warm you up though body to body contact. Their costumes draw from textile traditions: quilting, knitting, the patient repetitive work of keeping warm, care made tangible. The Gnomes belong in a beam of sun, warmed again, their bodies warm to touch.

These works remind us that love can come in the form of a joke. Being someone's clown or fool can be a place of comfort. Finding a little thread deep in a loved one's head to pull on and tie a skilful knot at just the right moment can hold the reward in laughter. Buffoonery is paramount. Think of Gnomes as little gargoyles, here for protection. They might sit at a front door to ward off evil, or simply calmly take care of us while we go about our business. Quiet keepers. Sentinels at the threshold between the known and the forgotten, between earnestness and magic.

Visit the exhibition in our Fitzroy store from 1st September.