Original maquettes for Milestones 2025 - Plasticine, jesmonite, paint
Milestones is a public art commission at Auburn House, Malahide. The project began in 2025 and will be installed in the autumn of 2026. The work consists of five colourful, tactile sculptures placed along the forested walkways of the housing development.
Milestones draws inspiration from the 19th-century granite milestone located at the periphery of the Auburn development. Traditionally, these milestones marked distances along travel routes, serving both practical and symbolic roles as guides and markers of progress. They helped travellers understand their journey through time and place, providing a tangible connection between movement and landscape. Along the road from Malahide to the GPO, distances were once marked by nine milestones, all but one of which still survive.
Original 19th Century Milestone on the Malahide Road
The five sculptures positioned within the forested area at Auburn House are created to encourage walking, exploring and pausing for physical interaction; climbing, sitting, and crawling. They are playful wayfinding markers, created with the hope of deepening connection to the natural environment.
I was interested in the forest as a site for exploration, a wild space full of possibility, inspired by the uninhibited curiosity of my two young children when we go for a walk. I began to imagine the people who will inhabit the houses at Auburn and how they will experience this forest as they grow and change over time. The sculptures remain constant, while the forest itself grows and shifts around them.
In reinterpreting this concept, Milestones transforms wayfinding into an interactive, playful experience. Each Milestone acts as a marker of presence and time, moments to rest, reflect, or play, highlighting the relationship between the body in motion and the natural surroundings.
The project was commissioned by Hollybrook Homes and supported by Aisling Prior and Fingal Co. Co.