Gadi-um
Hugo Vos
Master of Architecture | University of Sydney
“I belong across multiple continents and places linked to my ancestral heritage and up bringing. Home is always about the act of gathering together as a family, in various locations tied to the objects and landscapes we occupied.”
MATERIALS: timber (treated) + copper + treated kangaroo leather
Artist Statement
My childhood was spent on the track, walking stories and many steps of dialogue between my family and I. Roaming the hills of the Yorkshire Dales in the north of England with my grandparents hearing there stories of our family and there lives to the backdrop of rugged windswept hills and crumbling stone walls. always followed by a warm meal around the hearth, wet socks dried out and an ever present stove, chestnuts cracking on top. My family carried this tradition to the outstretched peninsulas of Gadigal country, a drastically different landscape with the my ocean teacher in the background.
Synopsis
Entwined with my ancestral heritage and the significance of the Gadi - Grass tree to the indigenous people of the land I grew up on; the Gadi urn is a portable ancestral hearth to connect back to a necrocratic timeline of those that came before. The Grass tree - Xanthorrhoea Australis, has many significant uses to the gadigal people, known as a salt water based economy the tree provided them with spears, a binding agents and food. With a deeper ancestral use connecting them back to there ancestors through a ceremonial burning of the resin as incense.
This recollected my own connection to the traditional woodturning craft of my grandfathers. The object is imbued with this cross-cultural dialogue between my own craft heritage and reverence to the indigenous use of this sacred material. The Gadi Urn becomes an ancestral vessel to burn Resin and be reminded of who came before.
Constructed out of a solid block of recycled Jarrah from a house on Gadigal country; the timber is turned on a lathe, then lacquered in 5 coats of grass tree resin waxed and polished. The inner chamber is made copper, hand forged from a flat sheet and patina’d in salt from the oceans and bays of Gadigal country. to connect the object together and give it motion reminiscent of a religious censer; hand braided Kangaroo leather is threaded through the urn.
The more the urn is burnt the scent of home builds up on its walls. with each person smelling the vessel reminded of a completely different place and memory.
