Jillian Nalty

Drawn to the strange and uncanny, Jillian Nalty often begins with observed forms and textures that evoke a visceral, sensual response. Through unexpected material relationships and familiar forms made strange, she creates works that move between beauty and the grotesque, attraction and repulsion.

'Milk Teeth' explores the uneasy relationship between protection and threat, nourishment and consumption. Two opposing rows of wax-coated wooden forms suggest a mouth suspended between opening and closing. The title refers to our first teeth, temporary structures that emerge through the tenderness of infancy, yet introduce the capacity to bite, tear and wound.

The milky, dripping surface of the wax introduces another bodily association, suggesting milk, saliva and other secretions. Its softness and translucency contrast with the sharp, pointed geometry beneath, making the forms appear simultaneously tender and threatening. Neither fully organic nor architectural, the sculpture occupies an ambiguous space between the body and the object, where the boundaries between nurturing and consuming, vulnerability and aggression become difficult to distinguish.