In Absence is an architectural installation erected within the Grollo Equiset Garden of the NGV International, a soaring cylindrical monolith, of radical cultural significance, (on the timely eve of the 250th anniversary of captain James Cook’s landing at Botany Bay, Sydney.) that explores the fallacy of the premise of "Terra Nullius" or "nobody's land", result of colonial land theft in the 18th century, which declared Australia as an emptiness awaiting ownership.
“This is an incredible opportunity to be a public voice, to speak about architectures’ role in the community and what it means to the contemporary Australian individual.”
Kim Bridgland
In Absence is a 10-meter wide, 9-meter high cylindrical structure made almost entirely from Tasmanian timber with surrounding gardens of grasses that the Aboriginal people managed as grain crops to be ground into flour. The inner form of the structure speaks to the permanent homes and villages of the Aboriginal people.
Hundreds of hand-blown glass yams – designed by Scarce – line in two opposing circular chambers inside of pavilion, revealing and celebrating over 3000 generations of Indigenous design, industry and agriculture.
Over the next 6-months, the structure will facilitate lectures, panel discussions, storytelling and culture and knowledge sharing.
Project description by Adamo Faiden Arquitectos
Contemporary artist Yhonnie Scarce and Melbourne architecture studio Edition Office have been announced as the winners of the 2019 National Gallery of Victoria Architecture Commission for their scheme titled In Absence.
Occurring annually, the NGV Architecture Commission is an open national competition, which invites architects to create a site-specific work of temporary architecture, activating the NGV’s Grollo Equiset Garden. For 2019, architects were encouraged to submit ideas focusing on multidisciplinary thinking, collaboration and audience engagement.
Yhonnie Scarce’s and Edition Offices’ project In Absence is an architectural installation that invites audiences to better understand the fallacy of the premise of Terra Nullius, which declared Australia as an emptiness awaiting ownership, by revealing and celebrating long histories of Indigenous construction, design, industry and agriculture, including the permanent villages and dwellings of many Indigenous communities
The dark and enigmatic exterior form of the timber tower conceals a textural and uplifting interior, composed of two dramatic internal voids adorned with two thousand black glass Yams by Yhonnie Scarce.
