Milner Gardens Part 2 – Funky Artwork

A few months ago I promised to show you the “funky” part of the grounds at Milner Gardens, the beautiful acreage near Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island that we visited last June. I’m finally ready to reveal this and you can let me know what you think of it.

When you tour Milner Gardens, you find yourself in a world full of natural beauty adorned with a large country home decorated with elegant furniture and exquisite works of art by the lady of the house, Veronica Milner.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to encounter the “Woodland Cyborgs” garden. Various metal creatures hang suspended from trees and bushes, or peer out at you from the ground. Let me show you.

These are all metal and found art sculptures created by an art class in 3D Design from Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus. The students were given the subject “Cyborgs and Winged Things” to get them started. Some of the results are quite beautiful and others are rather creepy, don’t you think?

Two more for your perusal…

I’m not sure what this one is supposed to be. Any ideas?

The purpose of the project was “to create a diverse variety of quirky sculptures that interface with the natural forest environment, and send the viewer on a visual scavenger hunt of discovery”. I think it achieved that objective, but it certainly was a contrast to the rest of our tour of the property.