July 7, 2025 • 48 mins
What happens when steel becomes soft? When industrial materials take on organic forms? In Gerard Dombrowski's debut solo exhibition "Inflation" at Season Aotearoa Gallery, steel transforms into something unexpectedly fluid and inviting.
We turn the microphone on our own Gerard Dombrowski as he shares the journey behind creating "Inflation"—a collection of hydroformed steel objects that challenge our perception of what's possible with metal. The exhibition features approximately 19 pieces, including wobbly vases, rocking chairs, and cushion-like forms, all arranged as a garden-like landscape visitors can explore.
The conversation dives deep into Gerard's technique of hydroforming—welding steel shapes together, connecting a tap, and using water pressure to expand the metal outward into organic, bulbous forms. It's a process that combines precision with chance, creating objects that appear impossibly soft despite their metallic composition. The rocking chair stands out as a particular achievement: a hydroformed cube with natural roundness that creates a functional rocking motion, complete with cushions and surprisingly comfortable seating.
What makes this exhibition particularly fascinating is Gerard's background in architecture and how it influences his artistic practice. The conversation follows his ambitious vision to scale up the hydroforming technique to create actual buildings—a hydroformed shed as proof of concept, potentially leading to larger structures. This cross-pollination between art and architecture demonstrates how creative experimentation in one field can generate innovative approaches in another.
Beyond the technical aspects, Gerard reveals how the exhibition came together through spontaneous creation rather than detailed planning—a month of "full send in the workshop" that nearly resulted in physical collapse from exhaustion. His story reminds us of the intense physical and mental demands of bringing creative work into the world, especially when pushing the boundaries of materials and processes.
Check out "Inflation" at Season Aotearoa Gallery in Auckland before July 12th, and experience these remarkable objects that blur the boundaries between art, design, and architecture. Sit in the rocking chair, observe the garden of steel flowers, and glimpse a potential future where our buildings might take on unexpectedly organic forms.
Key Links:
- https://www.seasonaotearoa.com/
- https://www.gdw.nz/menu
- https://artfair.co.nz/2025/07/02/meet-the-artist-gerard-dombroski-season/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sam Brown (00:01):
It's time to roll out the red carpet.
Limited release 29 is a red IPAbrewed with a complex wrist of
malts and a big blend ofheavy-hitting American hop
varieties, showcasing boldcitrus and berry fruit
characters on top of a lusciousred toffee malt cushion.
Sounds like a lovely red steelcushion I've recently seen at
Cesar Naltaroa in Auckland.
(00:22):
Check out this drop like theexhibition before it's gone.
Today we have the absolutepleasure of turning the mic on
one of our own.
Gerard Dombrowski has his firstsolo show, called Inflation, on
now at César Altearoa inAuckland and we couldn't be
prouder of him.
In this episode, Gerard takesus through his artistic approach
(00:42):
from wire brushing inside acube to scattering objects on
the floor.
His insight into the connectionbetween art and architecture is
not to be missed.
Get down to season before the12th of July to check out the
exhibition and swag back on awobbly chair Time to dive in.
I'm super keen to pick yourbrain about the exhibition and
(01:22):
how you put it together and howit's gone and all that sort of
jazz.
Also.
I think it's worth probablyjust giving a quick
congratulations to Ben ArchitectBen, we haven't done that on
the pod yet.
Well done, buddy.
Ben Sutherland (01:36):
Stop it.
No one even knew I wasn't.
Sam Brown (01:38):
Welcome to the club.
We're now three architects, youcan now speak with validity on
this.
On this show.
Ben Sutherland (01:48):
I've leveled up.
Nah it feels good.
It's like a chapter that tookme 10 years to close, but yeah,
got it done made it a little funyou get to pay all that, get to
pay all those exorbitant feesand ramp up your insurance.
I haven't done any of thosethings yet.
Early days.
Sam Brown (02:07):
Going around to it.
Ben Sutherland (02:08):
Yeah, yeah, no, it feels good.
It actually does feel good,nice bro.
Sam Brown (02:12):
Nice, oh, congratulations.
Gerard Dombroski (02:14):
And look at that sweet new beer.
Sam Brown (02:15):
architecture, branding yeah, I like it.
Look at that T-shirt, yep.
Ben Sutherland (02:19):
Rolling the nice new kind of dolmen.
Thanks, nice new kind of dolman.
Thanks to the man himselfPretty sick.
I'll get myself one of those.
Sam, you've done a companybrand recently.
How do you compare yours tomine?
Sam Brown (02:32):
I like yours.
Ours is a little bit different.
Here's our little businesscards.
Ben Sutherland (02:36):
Yeah, yours is fancy Mine is just a couple of
guys.
An illustration of two guysplaying golf.
Sam Brown (02:45):
That was me and Johnny Dusty as the day after
the dream, the day after theSouthern NZIA Awards.
Ben Sutherland (02:54):
Knocking the ball about how we're a golf
course.
Yeah, big congrats to.
Sam Brown (02:58):
Arie Architects for naming that as well, and another
one recently with Robin, robin,maria's yeah yeah, niche the
well the well, sorry window andglass association of new zealand
.
Nice residential carpenter inwellington glazed home of the
year.
That's a nice award it's amouthful.
(03:22):
It's cool, though, yeah it'shard out.
Ben Sutherland (03:25):
Yeah, it's actually kind of cool to be.
I'm sure there's got more tocome as well.
I'm sure it's nice.
Sam Brown (03:29):
I just reckon it's cool knowing that there's.
You know, I wouldn't have neverknown there was glass awards
out there.
There must be.
There's probably like plumbingawards and tiling awards and of
random things out there, Iimagine, do you reckon
accountants have awards?
Yeah, best Spreadsheeter yeah.
Ben Sutherland (03:47):
Fastest.
Sam Brown (03:47):
Exceller.
Gerard Dombroski (03:48):
Oh, I love those Excel videos.
The.
Sam Brown (03:50):
Excel Award.
Gerard Dombroski (03:52):
Excelling at Excel Excel World Champs.
Boom yeah, that's an accolade.
Ben Sutherland (03:59):
Look at us all doing stuff.
So many puns, so many puns.
Sam Brown (04:02):
That's too good, but look at us all out there doing
stuff.
Gerard Dombroski (04:06):
Professional.
Sam Brown (04:07):
Yeah exhibition.
Gerard Dombroski (04:08):
That was a good time yeah mate.
Ben Sutherland (04:10):
It was full on, it was good, had a couple.
I have to say I made it to theopening evening and I was the
first person in the door, Ibelieve, or one of them, no wait
.
I was the third, after Gerardand Augie, and got to take like
a photo of the Raw exhibitionand damn, it looked good, I must
(04:31):
say.
Sam Brown (04:34):
Gerard, tell us, give us the elevator pitch.
Gerard Dombroski (04:36):
for those that don't know about it, I don't
know if you find yourself inAuckland before the 12th of this
month.
So by the time this episodecomes out it's probably closed.
Sam Brown (04:47):
So you might be no we might try to get this out
before it closes you reckon itmight come out on the 8th.
Gerard Dombroski (04:53):
Yeah, all right, so you've got four days.
Get yourself down to Grey Lynnto season our Te Arawa gallery.
It's my first solo, so I'd bepretty thankful to old J francis
for entrusting me with a solomomentous occasion in my uh art
career what is that?
Ben Sutherland (05:13):
what was the theme?
Yeah, what is that?
Gerard Dombroski (05:17):
um, it's kind of wobbly objects, wobbly vases,
so it's kind of like alandscape.
It's almost a garden.
So what is it?
It's probably 19 odd objects.
There's two chairs, sick chairs, four cushions, and then the
rest are vases Of varyingheights and scales and widths
(05:38):
and shapes.
Sam Brown (05:40):
Long, tubular one.
I love that.
That one's sick.
Gerard Dombroski (05:43):
So we kind of arranged it as kind of like a
culmination.
So there's like an event, aclimax, at the end and it drops
off again afterwards.
So we kind of laid it out so,as you're walking in the door,
it's like quite an impact, andthen you get to sort of walk
through the garden.
So, yeah, it was way more of aspatial experience than, like, I
(06:07):
knew it was going to be spatial, but it was like probably more,
more of yeah, it worked betterthan I was expecting it to do
you reckon that that evolvedduring, like the making of the
pieces, or was that more on thesetup?
both are pretty key.
I think the setup.
We just angled the heights kindof in order roughly, so it kind
(06:30):
of peaked on the chimney one.
If you're listening to this andyou don't know what we're
talking about, we're justtalking about a whole bunch of
bubbly objects, really.
Yeah, so it's just a room fullof hydroformed objects.
But the way I put it togetherwas pretty instinctually Like.
We've talked about my designprocess quite a bit by now, so
it's like didn't draw many.
(06:51):
I drew some stuff at the veryend, just before I was making
the chimney as, like, how Iwanted to arrange the space Was
like I needed that verticalelement in there.
Sam Brown (07:03):
Is that that sketch you put up on your Instagram?
Ben Sutherland (07:05):
No, that was no, that's just a drawing of the
actual exhibition.
But I don't know if that'sentirely true, gerard, because
you actually sent me a digitalversion of what your concept was
, I guess, and it was definitelylike scattered objects.
Someone's walked in the doorwith a tray of vases, had fallen
(07:31):
over and like it's kind of likescattered over the ground.
Sam Brown (07:34):
yeah, you showed us that at the end of the recording
one day but, I, think at thattime you were thinking that they
were going to be candle holders, or was it always vases?
Ben Sutherland (07:44):
oh, it was a vase, was it always vases?
Oh, it was a vase.
Yeah, wait, is it vases?
Or vases oh don't get into thatPotato, potato.
Gerard Dombroski (07:52):
Yeah, like there's definitely some yeah
trying to figure out what Icould fit on a sheet of steel as
well, so there's a little bitof loose massing.
Sam Brown (08:01):
And on the back of your truck.
Gerard Dombroski (08:05):
That was just lucky.
I don't know how you fittedthem all on there.
That one was not planned at all, I just got lucky.
Ben Sutherland (08:11):
Maybe do a bit of planning next time.
Do your best and jib the rest,silicon the rest.
Gerard Dombroski (08:20):
Yeah, because I was straight off the back of
Mayfair, which I made ahydroformed table, and two
stills that had a rock on it,which I was lucky enough to have
an awesome couple buy that.
So that meant I had one lessthing that I was planning to
have in my show at the previoustime.
(08:40):
So then I had like a month offull send in the workshop.
Really it was pretty hectic,yeah nearly had a heart attack,
didn't?
Really didn't take a day off,just we almost died afterwards.
Sam Brown (08:55):
Let's not dwell too much on that, but worth probably
noting.
We'll get to that this manwalks this man works hard, we'll
get to that.
Ben Sutherland (09:05):
This man works hard.
So, yeah, hydroforming foranyone out there who doesn't
know is basically he welds allthese objects in a shape
together and then also welds atap connection and then uses a
water blaster to pump it full ofwater so the steel shape
expands outwards in kind of anorganic, random form, and then
(09:31):
basically, yeah, cuts the tapoff, welds it and cleans it all
up and that's the object.
Does that sound?
yeah, about right, gerard prettymuch bang on, so yeah and I, I
have to say I think like therewas a couple of my favorite
objects.
Obviously the coffee table waslike a easy win, but I think my
(09:52):
personal favorite object was therocking chair, where it's like
basically like this bighydroformed cube so it was kind
of cubed steel cube with somekind of roundness and that
natural roundness from thehydroforming created like a
natural rock and then just cutout the seat area and filled it
full of cushions.
Looked so cool and was actuallycrazy comfortable and the
(10:16):
rocking worked so well.
Gerard Dombroski (10:18):
That's definitely the most comfortable
chair I've made, which was theintention that was.
That was a win.
That was one of the ones thatwas designed beforehand.
That was in my mind.
It's been part of mum's houseproject, so in my mind there'll
be that one and then like a, asofa version of it but she got
dibs on that uh, well, hopefullyit sells.
Ben Sutherland (10:41):
Yeah, she might get v2, but but wait, what was
the sofa going to be like?
Three times that?
Yeah, just the same thing.
Is it rocking as well?
You got like three peoplesitting on the couch rocking
back and forth, yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (10:54):
That's cool, that'd be kind of fun.
All very annoying.
Yeah, probably the latter,imagine two young siblings Worse
than sitting beside each otherin a car?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that scale I found wasreally fun to hydroform because
it's quite a big shape, a lot ofwater.
Ben Sutherland (11:12):
When I made that , maybe one cubic metre of water
.
Gerard Dombroski (11:16):
Yeah, yeah, essentially, when I made that,
like the whole rockiness becamemore feasible as a concept in
itself, it's kind of a strongenough movement, an idea, to
kind of tie an exhibitiontogether.
I thought so pretty much.
Well, all of the objects arerocking objects and the tippier
ones all have concrete in thebase, or the smaller ones that,
(11:40):
like a flower, may overbalanceit, those have have concrete at
the bottom as well.
Sam Brown (11:44):
Did you cast the concrete in then kind of like
weld the form up around it, thenhydroform it?
Ben Sutherland (11:49):
Pour some concrete in the bottom.
Sam Brown (11:51):
Or just pour concrete in the bottom, at the end.
Gerard Dombroski (11:53):
Yeah, so I had to drill a hole to weld in the
hydroform spout Sorry, the vasespout, because they're still
functioning vases, but just witha little bit of welded tube in
there.
Because they're stillfunctioning vases, but just with
a little bit of welded tube inthere, sure, so we just rammed
brick mortar in there, nice.
Ben Sutherland (12:12):
The thing I liked about the ballooning
effect of the hydroform is therewas somewhat of like a negative
detail around the bottom, solike that rocking aspect also
created like a real nice kind ofnegative detail where it's like
a shadowed line around thebottom where it kind of makes a
shadow.
A shadow, yeah, exactly ashadow line around the bottom
that makes it seem like it'sfloating that was really cool.
Sam Brown (12:31):
Yeah, I like that.
When you're making them dry,did you like?
Do they ever just explode?
Gerard Dombroski (12:37):
definitely yeah.
Yeah, some the shape might havecorners that don't want to
hydroform very well, like atight inside curve will
ultimately pop pretty quickly.
Yeah, buttons tend to poppretty quickly.
Previously I've pretty muchalways done buttons, so this was
like a liberation of buttoningwhich kind of allowed me to pump
(13:02):
it up fuller and get like arounder, softer, more cushiony
sort of shape.
Sam Brown (13:07):
When you say buttons, what do you mean by that?
Ben Sutherland (13:10):
Like cushion buttons yeah previously I went
to like little cushions.
Gerard Dombroski (13:15):
So I'd weld a rod through the middle and then,
yeah, you'd get the puffingaround the button point Right.
But without that you just get avery full rounded object
because ultimately, like, peopleuse hydroforming to make
spheres.
So if you weld up a very basiccircle net, if you turned all
(13:39):
the triangles down in yourcomputer model, so like a two
circle caps and some cones, thenyou can pump that out into a
perfect sphere if you pump ithard enough, right, crazy.
So that's how it works.
Ben Sutherland (13:50):
What was PSI you're putting into that beast?
Oh, I actually have no idea.
Gerard Dombroski (13:54):
I put a pressure reader on my first ever
hydroform and I've never putone on since.
What was your first one.
Can you remember that?
Ben Sutherland (14:07):
It looked like a sie, a civ, so it's like four
bar or something.
And and, um, are we?
Are you allowed to talk aboutsome of your more ambitious
future projects?
Gerard Dombroski (14:15):
yeah, that the scale of a gallery is really
exciting, but at the same timeit kind of fuels this need which
initially was the.
The yeah, like the whole pointof the workshop in my mind
initially was building researchor the place you'd learn, but
ultimately you'd want to tie itback into architecture.
So I think, like I've pushedthe hydroforming quite far now
(14:37):
in the art sculpture realm andit would be pretty nice to push
it into the architecture realmand I think it's just very
feasible to.
I need to do a little, maybe asmall shed for a desk as a
prototype for some other biggerpotential projects we have
(14:58):
coming up where we're looking tohydroform some more 30 square
meter sort of size buildings.
Ben Sutherland (15:04):
That's a lot of water.
Yeah, that's a lot of water,yeah that's a lot of water.
Gerard Dombroski (15:07):
That's a lot of water so we're, we're still
in, like the feasibility side, Iguess, of this, because it's I
don't know, I don't know of anyhydroform buildings that's like
90 cubic meters of water.
Ben Sutherland (15:22):
How many liters?
Gerard Dombroski (15:24):
is that.
Sam Brown (15:24):
A lot.
You may as well like you justhave this beautiful hydroformed
building and then an Olympicswimming pool beside it and you
just take the water from one endto the other.
Ben Sutherland (15:32):
I've been talking to a mate who has a farm
You'd want to do it mid-winter,surely, so there's no drought.
Yeah, your neighbors might notlike you, yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (15:50):
As might not like you.
Yeah, as long as you do itsomewhere where you're not
paying for water, ideallysomewhere where I don't know,
let's say it's 70 000 liters orsomething.
You want somewhere where, ifand when that a weld explodes,
it doesn't compromise anythingwhere all that water goes.
Yeah, and then you're gonnahave to have some pretty uh, I
don know some tight health andsafety measures in place.
Sam Brown (16:07):
You're not going to want to flood some houses out or
something.
Yeah, you probably don't wantto Not really one to do in situ.
Gerard Dombroski (16:14):
Nah, maybe for a rural property.
Rural property would be a meanone to prototype, yeah, but you
wouldn't want to be near iteither while it's filling up
Boom.
So there's, I don't know lotsof little things to think about,
but it's kind of where my mindgoes immediately is jumping to
those little problems.
Sam Brown (16:34):
It's kind of cool, dude, that you're looking at a
way to transfer this, thislearning and this knowledge,
because one thing I thoughtabout through all of of this is
you've done so much of it, andquite intensively as well.
You haven't grown tired of thisline of inquiry yet.
Yeah, stranger, yeah, it's cool.
I mean I reckon it's awesome.
(16:55):
It's kind of it's kind of coolto hear that you've that, you're
you haven't grown tired of it,but more like quite the contrary
, it's sort of growing.
It's growing the the Euroambition, which is pretty
interesting.
Gerard Dombroski (17:08):
Yeah, and I think I don't know I'm somebody
who jumps right in Next yearwe'll be doing office blocks.
Sam Brown (17:15):
Hydroformed planet.
I want to make it the biggestcube in the world.
It's just what the Death Starwas the Death Star.
Ben Sutherland (17:25):
The ultimate hydroforming goal the Death Star
.
The ultimate hydroforming goalthe Death Star.
Gerard Dombroski (17:30):
Well, there's another idea of explosive
forming which could be a chuck,a stick of dynamite inside.
Sam Brown (17:36):
TNT in there.
Gerard Dombroski (17:38):
My little brother's an armorer.
So I wonder Maybe mining peoplewould have more mining people.
They would have more explosivespeople which you could probably
get involved.
Ben Sutherland (17:53):
So there, dried ice and water, there's a
possibility there.
Gerard Dombroski (17:56):
Have a play with the process a little bit.
But yeah, I think seeing a justlike in my mind, a very basic
child drawing of a house like agable with a window and and they
go fat, yeah, then like youpuncture through these like real
crisp door and window, I thinkit's could be, and then it's in
(18:20):
like polished, stainless orsomething.
It's kind of too an appealingidea to pass up on yeah man
needs to be, needs to be actedon?
Ben Sutherland (18:28):
I think to yeah prototypes will have to be done
well I was thinking like thesmall full of water I was
thinking the small scale one,the rocking.
Gerard Dombroski (18:42):
Yeah, initially I want to build one
just the size of the back of myute, so I can fit it on the tray
if need be, which would be 2.4by 1.8 or something.
You could just leave that witha curved underside and chuck it
on a lawn or something, and thenyou'd build a timber floor on
(19:02):
the inside.
But then I think, spray foamingthe inside walls it becomes
like a container for that.
Yeah, the hydroforming checksfor leaks.
So then you know it's 100waterproof and then spray foam
it to stop condensation and thenlike a thing, even maybe like a
stucco plaster on the inside,like you'd sculpt it back so it
(19:24):
follows the walls Totally.
Yeah, you wouldn't want to losethat natural form on the
interior.
It'd be such a shame though.
Sam Brown (19:33):
It seems like such a compromise.
Yeah, Go inside and it's justlike a generic box You're like
oh.
Ben Sutherland (19:39):
Just put like a box in.
It would be quite funny.
I know someone with a farm.
Sam Brown (19:44):
If you need some water and space, Back to the
exhibition, because I mean thearchitecture side of things we
could talk about all day, butthe exhibition side of things I
mean particularly for, I guess,myself and probably you too,
being pretty foreign to us howdid you go about one deciding
what to do?
Like, obviously you've talkedabout this idea of it like being
(20:05):
a, you know, a walk through a,through a garden and the idea
like the growth and the in thecome down type thing, but like
did you just play around andkind of like what landed, landed
?
And then from that how do yougo about even curating the show?
Gerard Dombroski (20:20):
I think there's.
There's a real interestingstory there.
Like I had a month and a tablethat I was loosely planning on
having in that was no longergoing to be in.
So it was like the race ofgetting as many hydroformed
objects was kind of started.
So I had my friend SarahBookman come down and she helped
(20:42):
me for a solid week of we werejust chopping shapes and
hydroforming them.
It was very playing.
Yeah, it was really off thecuff.
It was like no, except likethere was a couple things like
um wanted to make like a littlereference to like the old
chimney on dot cuts, so that bigwedge tape written wedge sort
of thing.
It's like a motif that I'vebeen playing with a little bit.
(21:04):
That was like the first one andthen we started making shapes
and then I made like a littlearchway one and that just seemed
very cute.
So, then that led to a doublearch bench.
Sam Brown (21:18):
Yeah, the aqueduct, one is sick.
Gerard Dombroski (21:20):
I really like that.
Yeah, I loved that one.
It worked out really well.
I hope somebody takes that home.
Another table that I have, whichis another rock table, which I
was initially building for theart fair, but then I realized I
had way less space than Ithought I had, and this one was
a full-size dining table whichis kind of like a lattice.
(21:41):
It was like two bits of steel,two bits of steel, two bits of
steel, two bits of steel, fourbits of steel, four bits of
steel.
So it's like a reference toKing Okuma's Bridge Museum,
which is like a central pole,and then like layering up of
timber that goes up and holdsthe building Real beautiful
building.
So this table has like and it'sall stainless.
(22:04):
So it's like a whole differentlanguage to like the cushion
stuff.
So then I was in my mindplanning like a couple of those
sort of layering up ideas andultimately I ran out of time and
I built the table but it wasslightly wobbly in the corners.
Everything sits on a 38mm solid, stainless bar which is like
(22:27):
you pick up the bar and you'relike there's no way I'm bending
this, and then, as soon as youbuild a table, then you press on
the end of the table you cansee the bar wiggling a little
bit.
Damn, it's amazing how much alittle lever arm will do to
something.
Yeah, yeah.
Sam Brown (22:45):
How heavy is?
Gerard Dombroski (22:45):
that table Pretty heavy.
The top's what 2.2 by 9 or 9.50, 3 mil.
So there's a lot of steel there.
Yeah, and then you've got thelayering up of lots of steel
fins as well.
It looks beautiful.
It's on the basis of a bit ofwhite marble cut off of one of
(23:07):
Joe Sheehan's Fetch Streetsculptures, so there's like a
really nice story to the table.
And then I had six stools thatI was planning as well, which
were like circle drums, circlewalnut drums, so like just
perfect circle tubes, which Ihave all the material for now
(23:29):
Been a month to build, so prettymuch everything in that show
and then that table and chairs.
And then I was in my mind Ineeded like more steel fin
things to offset, to like toread, within that landscape of
hydroform objects to place theseother things.
I think, yeah, running out oftime essentially was the best
thing for me because I left myown devices.
(23:50):
I just make too many things andI think the show is good
because it is restrained andthat it's like one object, two
materials, red, red andstainless and then it's just
like like the landscape and theflowers kind of get to speak to
each other.
Sam Brown (24:06):
Yeah, and I can see it being because it's quite.
I mean, it's a beautifullycultivated space, but it's not
an enormous space, right?
So you could see it filling uppretty quickly and almost being
overwhelming.
Gerard Dombroski (24:18):
Yeah, it's 16 metres by like 4.8.
So that was intimidating.
It was like there's a lot ofspace there and yeah, I guess
that empties big like really bigyeah yeah, but I didn't really
factor in that the first fivemeters doesn't really have
lighting.
So, yeah, my calculations wereincorrect in the first place.
Sam Brown (24:42):
Yeah, did you play around a lot with arrangements
and plan before you got there?
Gerard Dombroski (24:49):
no, I had a sketch which was like just
imagining this sort ofscattering of objects, but that
didn't have the point and thetapering down that was just like
full scattering.
Scattering kind of happenedwith francis when we were just
arranging it, the gallerycurator, yeah, and that happened
quite quickly.
We just arranged it and it waslike, oh yeah, that's actually
pretty awesome, let's just leaveit like that.
Sam Brown (25:11):
That was relatively stress-free did francis have
quite a bit of input into thecuration, or was it a bit of a
like a collab between you guys,or was it more driven by them,
or loosely?
Gerard Dombroski (25:21):
but it was, I guess, mainly.
It was like gerard, where doyou want to put your things?
And yeah, yeah, I guess itstopped before it stopped.
Yeah, it stopped me doinganything stupid yeah, that's
quite nice to have that freedom.
Sam Brown (25:34):
I've always wondered how that works with solo shows,
how much the like gallerycurator dictates versus how much
the artist gets to dictate.
Like obviously you as theartist have a vision, but
curators are curators for areason.
That's the equivalent of.
I've always found this funny.
When I'm on a shoot with SimonDevitt and I'll be like I think
(25:55):
this will be a nice shot andhe'll be like he'll hear me.
He'll be like okay, that shotnever comes through the proofs.
You think you know, but theexperts also know yeah, I guess
we're.
Gerard Dombroski (26:06):
We're also blessed, then, with elder sam
hartnett taking some nice photosof the gallery, which is, yeah,
it's pretty cool to have thosephotos.
Yeah, all around pretty stoked.
Um, I think whilst I built itall in a month, it was probably
best that I only had a month,because I would have kept going
to over complicating and thenjade and francis would have to
(26:28):
step in more and be like no draw, that doesn't work with that,
because I get a little bitexcited.
I'm like you get on this littlerampage in the workshop where I
don't know you just have somany ideas and you're like make,
make, make must make more.
Oh, this idea is awesome.
This idea is awesome.
I was thinking about makinghooks and like pictures like I
(26:49):
used to when I'd sell an objectto somebody.
Um, give them a little bit ofsteel with like a real crude
plasma cut drawing, so like alittle sketch or just something
absurd.
This is just like a real grossscribble, but in steel.
So then, I was like oh man, Ishould do some of those, but I
think all of these things wouldbe cool exhibitions by
(27:09):
themselves, like a bunch ofsteel drawings.
Sam Brown (27:14):
Yeah.
So that begs the question doyou have another show planned?
Not?
Currently but uh, take, take,take some time off there's,
there's many in my mind.
Gerard Dombroski (27:24):
Yeah, I guess that then leads us to the
probably overdoing it for amonth and then kind of having a
weird thing on the side of theroad way to Wanganui for the
night.
But yeah, I think I may havejust overdone it on the weird
spasm.
Sam Brown (27:38):
Working front.
Word of warning to listenersoverworking is a real thing.
Exhaustion will fuck your shitup.
Basically, yeah, what are wesupposed to do?
We're supposed to record and Iwas like yo, are we recording
tonight?
And ben's like I don't think so.
Pretty sure gerard's in thehospital and I was like what?
Yeah?
Gerard Dombroski (27:58):
it's hard to know where the limit is
sometimes, though.
Yeah, that got that.
That took me out for like aweek and then, like, with some
weird dizzy spells if you worktoo hard, and then I got a cold
for a week, so I've been out fora couple.
Yeah, starting to get back onthe tools, nice Rearing to go.
Sam Brown (28:14):
More making.
Gerard Dombroski (28:16):
Yeah, rearing to whip into this.
First the small scale shed,which I think will be a proof of
concept for the bigger ones,and then I have ideas around the
skin.
You want to be the structure,but then how do you engineer
that formally?
And then do we know anyengineers that work actually in
(28:39):
software?
What I'm thinking of,solidworks.
I think it's incredibly closeto like real life geometry.
Ben Sutherland (28:49):
No way you need a gun engineer someone who's
like super well, probably young,but super design focused, but
also understands the parameters,or just an absolute cowboy,
someone who really doesn'tunderstand the parameters but is
willing to put their name downto anything well, yeah, I mean
(29:11):
like it's somebody retiringworks a treat.
Sam Brown (29:18):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Like you know, you talked aboutthat proof of concept thing.
How could you not just do that?
Surely there's like a businessyou have to test it.
Well, that's right, exactlyright Get a brand to break.
Gerard Dombroski (29:32):
Well, building a mock-up, so it will be tested
.
Sam Brown (29:34):
Yeah, exactly right.
I don't know, take it to brandsor something and get them to
chuck it on the-.
Do they have a wiggle machine?
Yeah, it's not like it's goingto fall down in an earthquake.
No, no.
Gerard Dombroski (29:48):
It's going to be strong, but at some point we
have to formalize it andconvince.
Sam Brown (29:51):
What about?
Here's a question for you.
What about lightning strikes?
How do you?
Gerard Dombroski (29:56):
How do you deal with those, just ground it,
just earth it, just earth it.
But you also won't, whateveryou do.
Sam Brown (30:01):
Do not touch the outside of the house.
Gerard Dombroski (30:04):
I guess I need a big enough earth there.
It's just a jet stream bloodycaravan ultimately, isn't it?
Sam Brown (30:10):
Or just put it on rubber.
That's a really good point.
Ben Sutherland (30:12):
It is basically like a jet stream, some rubber
stilts, so like tires for acaravan, I guess Just a bit of
rubber separation, yeah, baseisolators.
Sam Brown (30:21):
Yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (30:22):
Cool.
Ben Sutherland (30:22):
Yeah, isolators, yeah Cool yeah.
Yeah, like a rocking house withbase isolators, so it doesn't
rock.
Sam Brown (30:27):
This comes back to our everything house episode.
Gerard Dombroski (30:35):
Surely everything inside the house also
has to be hydroformed.
Well, funny, you ask.
I've been thinking about likehydroformed nose and forks was
something I wanted to put in theshow.
I made a couple of plates ofhydroform, some plates.
Well, you just get like weirdchubby handles, like just kind
of comical.
That's my other recent researchis if you're going to weld a
(30:55):
shed then you kind of have to becertified.
So they've been looking intowelding certs, oh right, and I'm
going to send some tests awayto the testing people to see how
dangerously far away from myweld's been good enough for weld
cert.
So then that can inform as towhether I have to get somebody
else to weld up a shed or not.
Sam Brown (31:16):
What are they testing for that, like how strong your
welds are, and that sort ofthing?
Gerard Dombroski (31:20):
Yeah, they'll do an X-ray because it'll be
stainless.
So they'll do an X-ray and thena breakage test, I think Right.
And then you have to do itsupervised.
You essentially follow a recipeof what you're doing
Interesting, but it doesn'tsound as terribly difficult as I
anticipated, because I guessI've never had to weld anything
(31:43):
structural before.
I just weld chairs and vases.
Yeah, usually you don't forgeta building consent for a vase.
Sam Brown (31:49):
Yeah Well, how would you go about getting, I mean, I
guess, if it's under that, well,it's under 70 square meters.
Now, you know, you can kind ofskirt the realms of consent
there?
Ben Sutherland (32:00):
Not really.
It still needs to technicallybe complied To meet the building
code.
Sam Brown (32:03):
Yeah, it there still needs to technically be
compliant To meet the buildingcode.
But where in the building codedoes it say that you can't build
a house completely out of steel?
There's just durability andstability clauses, right.
Gerard Dombroski (32:13):
I don't think that's an issue.
I think the only issue is beinga certified welder and having
an engineer.
That's okay with it.
Give you a producer statementWorst comes to worst, you build
it.
You weld up a roll cageessentially inside of it.
Give you a producer statementWorst comes to worst, you build
it.
You weld up a roll cageessentially inside of it.
And that's easy enough.
Sam Brown (32:31):
You know how I talked about the Disney, not the
Disney, the Guggenheim, billBauer, and how it's just
basically latticework all behindit.
It'd still be kind of cool.
Then you could create thatcavity void and fill that with
foam in your lattice worksstructure it's a bit of a shame
though, isn't it like?
It would lose its purity theidea is don't do that skin as
(32:53):
structure.
Ben Sutherland (32:54):
Call it a day.
No one wants to see an ugly.
I don't want to see one ofthose things in a car, let alone
a house you'd never see it likeit'd be spray foamed over yeah,
either way.
Gerard Dombroski (33:03):
You'd never see it Like it would be spray
foamed over yeah, either way,you'd never see it.
Wow, yeah, that's ourcontingency plan anyway.
Sam Brown (33:09):
Nice.
Is this just for lulls, or haveyou got like a client of mine,
or is it probably just?
Gerard Dombroski (33:17):
I've weirdly got a couple of people
interested.
I think it's epic that peoplewant to entertain this kind of
thing.
Sam Brown (33:22):
Has that come through the exhibition or has that just
come through other channels?
Both one of each Cool, Nice man, that's awesome.
Gerard Dombroski (33:31):
You don't want to count your chickens.
Yeah, what I really love, I'llmake a little shed.
Sam Brown (33:36):
What I really love and you sort of talked about it
when you were thinking aboutwhat items to create, you were
using architectural motif as adesign driver for your art show,
and now you're kind of usingyour art show as a design driver
for your architecture.
That's sort of like this nicething.
Ben Sutherland (33:53):
So I really like that.
Gerard Dombroski (33:54):
It's a nice see-saw yeah yeah, I've just
been um writing some interviewquestions, answers to some
interview questions, for awrite-up on the show, and I've
been kind of talking about thathow it started in the workshop
as doing that reference to thearchitecture, but then
architecture references Like myspiky table was like a reference
(34:17):
to Ishigami's, one ofIshigami's buildings on that
university in Japan, and then,yeah, vice versa, you get the
same influences going back andforth.
Sam Brown (34:28):
What architecture was the inspiration for the pool
noodle couch?
That was door stops.
Gerard Dombroski (34:35):
It was like giraffe stoppers.
I built this, Was it not poolnoodles?
No, no, it's made out of poolnoodles.
Yeah, yeah.
Initially I had that project inmy mind for like two years and
I was planning on making it outof so and comical looking draft
stopper snakes with like googlyeyes and yeah, the breed
stoppers where you put them tolike sail off the underside of
(34:57):
the door.
Ben Sutherland (34:57):
Yeah, the old school, yeah, hilarious.
Sam Brown (35:01):
Tie some snakes together in a world where design
speaks louder than words, whatstory does your space tell?
At Autex Acoustics, theybelieve great design is more
than aesthetics.
Every product they createstrikes a perfect balance
between form, function andsustainability.
Made to enhance how spacesounds, looks and feels, from
(35:23):
using recycled materials topioneering carbon negative wool,
their commitment is to help youshape environments that inspire
people um, how, like zahamodeled, they engineered one of
(35:46):
her buildings purely on softwarebecause it was like too complex
to engineer.
Gerard Dombroski (35:50):
I think like solid works.
If you 3d scanned the shell of,like the house, solid works is
like a pretty powerful tool forstress analysis, right, which is
dangerously close to real life,what it, how it actually
performs.
Yeah, so I imagine like thesoftware.
(36:11):
Now, that is pretty comparable.
If you type in what gauge steel, so then you just you basically
just try to find an engineerthat works in solid works well,
I know one chat gpt if there'sany listeners out there?
Sam Brown (36:33):
if there's any listeners out there that uh that
aren't chat gpt that areproficient and solid work.
Gerard Dombroski (36:39):
Chat gpt is always listening don't do it,
man yeah, this I was talkingabout this the other day I think
like the little hydroformedhouse is like the first proper,
like delving into trying tocreate an architecture that AI
probably wouldn't come up.
That's a big positive for meabout this line of inquiry, if
we can keep things down thatroad Unrobotable yeah.
Sam Brown (37:02):
Yeah, I quite like that idea.
Keep it, keep it away, keep itaway, keep it random enough that
it can't be learnt.
Gerard Dombroski (37:09):
Basically Is that it yeah, that's what I
think, which goes back to thedesign process conversation and
Holtrop basically trickinghimself into designing things
using outside influences.
What does he do?
He made a building out of likea scribble.
You just pick out lines out ofa scribble or like ink droplet
(37:31):
drawings and then you're like,oh, that's my floor plan.
It's very strange, arbitrarysounding things, but fun
processes too.
Sam Brown (37:39):
I kind of like that idea of falling into a solution.
It's sort of like you said whenyou started doing the stuff for
the exhibition you were justwelding up random shapes and
blowing them up and seeing kindof where they led to.
Gerard Dombroski (37:51):
Yeah, I guess our parameters were like we want
a certain amount of this sortof size and then like Set
yourself some broad guidelinesor whatever and just see what
lands in the middle.
Sam Brown (38:01):
I found that quite interesting.
I'm preparing that talk forPULO on Friday.
Is it a live talk?
It is live.
Yeah, I was pegging it aroundhow you kind of develop yourself
as a designer a little bit andthe reason why I asked Gerard,
how long are you going to takethis line of design inquiry?
Because a thing that I'mplanning to talk about and that
(38:22):
is how we've taken that modularline of design inquiry not to
the end of its capability but tothe end of where I feel I can
be not necessarily bothered withit anymore, but I've explored
it enough to satisfy that itch.
Now I want to try somethingelse.
So it's interesting to hear yousay that you're still intrigued
by the hydroforming thing.
I like that idea of you fallinginto a new line of idea or
(38:46):
design inquiry, like you talkedabout just before.
Gerard Dombroski (38:48):
Yeah, it is interesting how long it's kept
me entertained, because I dosometimes have a tendency to
jump from idea to idea.
But I'm definitely not like aSean Godsell where I'm iterating
something in a certain aspect,certain lane it looks like it.
Sam Brown (39:09):
You are iterating though.
Yeah, I definitely am.
All of it's iteration I think Ihave several lanes of iteration
.
Gerard Dombroski (39:16):
There's lots of ideas all going at the same
time.
Sam Brown (39:20):
This one's just sort of the front runner at the
moment.
Yeah, it's one of the spinningplates.
I find it interesting preparingthese sort of the front runner
at the moment.
Yeah, smaller spinning plates.
I find it interesting preparingthese sort of talks because it
makes you review your workcritically, yeah, and your
journey critically as well.
I think you very rarely havethe opportunity, or afford
yourself the opportunity, to sitback and go wherever I come
(39:41):
from.
How did I get here?
What process did I use?
Where, where are we going?
And it's quite nice beingforced to do that in a way and
then being like ah, you kind ofstart to discover a little bit
more about yourself as adesigner and, I think, your
practice as well, which is kindof cool.
Yeah, it's the same as liketeaching, like sometimes you
learn more, more about whatyou're trying to do through
(40:01):
teaching others totally yeah,exactly, I think that's where
that sort of that draw to to beinvolved with uni kind of comes
into it as well.
Like you said, gerard, like you,you can glean really good ideas
from, from the people thatyou're supposed to be giving
ideas to, in a way you knowthere's minds we're trying to
(40:23):
free yeah, well, the I mean Ithink the reason that the reason
that you probably can getpretty good ideas from them is
their minds are free, sounds areall clouded and you'd be
intrigued like.
Gerard Dombroski (40:35):
Sometimes it's the opposite.
Sometimes people's ideas arevery locked into the conception
of a house.
I was brought up in a suburb ofgj gardeners.
When I think of the house, thisis was brought up in a suburb
of TJ Gardens.
When I think of a house, thisis what a house looks like.
So when you're trying toconvince people to kind of
expand your thoughts and reallyopen ideas up, sometimes it's
(40:56):
more of a struggle to pushpeople to actually free
themselves.
I was intrigued by that when Iwas teaching.
I have another strange pictureI emailed off to somebody the
other day.
I was thinking of a modularchapel, so like a outdoor
wedding venue.
You could have like a shippingcontainer with some panels which
(41:20):
you could just erect into anopen a-frame.
So it a real crisp white steeltube frame with some sort of
feather-like sheets of steelplayed on the sides.
But then you just have modules,so 1,200 wide based on a sheet
of steel, you just have like abank of six or seven of them.
Sam Brown (41:41):
Bam, so you can make it bigger or smaller, depending
on how big your wedding is.
Gerard Dombroski (41:45):
Yeah.
Or if you've got an outdoorwedding and then it rains,
you're like, oh no, what do I do?
Well, bam, pop up thisexpanding chapel.
Who did you send that to?
May I ask?
Sam Brown (41:57):
I've got a friend who's a wedding photographer,
just cold called out in the bluehave you got an idea.
It's not a bad tactic that outin the blue.
Have you got an idea?
Gerard Dombroski (42:04):
It's not a bad tactic.
That's exactly what I did.
I emailed them yeah.
I love that.
Well, they double as a marqueecompany.
The first people I'll likelyemail more For me.
I just want another avenue ofcreativity, yeah, and this other
idea that I have floatingaround in my head.
But I think business-wise Simihas legs.
Sam Brown (42:22):
I like the boldness of that as well Chapel marquee
Because I think you've said itbefore, Gerard, and it's another
thing that I've come to thinkof a lot is waiting for the
right client to explore an idea.
It's just never going to happen.
So you kind of need to pushthat stuff onto people.
(42:43):
Instead of waiting for someoneto come and get it.
You've given it out there, andthat way you almost guarantee
the right fit in terms of aclient, rather than having
somebody come to you and then belike, oh, I've got this crazy
idea.
What do you reckon they're like?
Oh, I don't really know, yeah,I promise True.
Gerard Dombroski (43:00):
There's plenty other.
But if you don't ask, you don'tknow wedding companies that I
can pitch it to yeah well, Ialso did it without any pictures
, so it was like yeah, so youjust tried to describe it, yeah
can you communicate this withwords so that'll be the real
imagine?
If that goes ahead, and Ididn't even give them a picture.
Like do you then like createyour own hire company for
(43:21):
rentable church chapels?
Ben Sutherland (43:24):
rentable wedding venues.
You might have to test ityourself first, mate Well that's
generally the way I do things,isn't it?
Sam Brown (43:31):
Yeah, if you can't find the right client, be the
right client.
Gerard Dombroski (43:36):
Yeah, you could build one module and then
you just I've done it before youbuild one thing and then you
move it in the photograph, sothen it looks bigger.
Sam Brown (43:44):
Yeah.
Easy, don't even have to buildone module Until somebody's like
hey, I've got this big weddingcoming up.
Ben Sutherland (43:55):
I need like 16 of your modules.
Get them to put down a depositand you just build 16 or 15 more
.
Sam Brown (44:02):
We've all heard how much Gerard can get done in a
month.
Gerard Dombroski (44:05):
Just have a big weekend, you know.
Sam Brown (44:07):
Yeah.
Ben Sutherland (44:09):
Sounds like it was a month on, two weeks off,
though.
Yeah, yeah, I was out, that'sjust oil rig work, isn't it?
Sam Brown (44:17):
Yeah, yeah, I'm in the mines.
Yeah, you probably could becoming home from work looking
like you've been in the mines.
That much grinding it does, man.
Gerard Dombroski (44:27):
There was a couple of days where I started
making that chair that's the onething I had started making
before and it had rusted over soI had to wire brush that and it
took me like a day of wirebrushing.
Wire brushing inside of a cube.
Oh my God.
Yeah, shit was everywhere Gross.
No air was safe, oh, that'scrumbly.
(44:48):
That was a very dirty shower.
Sam Brown (44:51):
The painted ones?
Are they mild steel, notstainless?
Gerard Dombroski (44:55):
Yeah, they're all electro-galve, with the
exception of that chair whichfor some silly reason I didn't
buy electro-galve.
Everything seems to rust in myworkshop, so try to buy
electro-galve or stainless wherepossible.
I guess the red oxide as wellis like a New Zealand reference.
I think it's classic NewZealand colour.
Lots of sheds and lots ofprimers back in the day were
(45:19):
probably red oxide.
Sam Brown (45:20):
Yeah, any old building you pull it apart,
it'll have red oxide steel in it.
Gerard Dombroski (45:24):
Yeah, somewhere around there's some
red oxide.
Yeah, I think it's a story witha bit of colour and I've
painted the edges ever soslightly a different colour just
to kind of accentuate thatshape.
But that came about becauseafter I hydroformed it I kind of
dry off the water and then,because there's a ground back
edge where you weld, grind theelectro-gal off, then you're
(45:48):
left with a bit of raw steelwhich will flash, rust real fast
if it's wet.
So then I just put some zincspray paint primer on there and
then I kind of created a greysurface with a slightly darker
grey in the corners and then,just hanging out in the workshop
with me, I kind of became quiteinto that accentuated edge kind
of seem to emphasize thepillowy-ness a little bit.
(46:13):
Cool Another happy accident,yeah, so the whole thing was
lots of happy accidents, movingas you go, which, yeah, it was
really fun.
Sam Brown (46:22):
What's the name of the show?
Gerard Dombroski (46:24):
Inflation A Happy Accident yeah.
Sam Brown (46:26):
Inflation, the Happy Accident.
Yeah, inflation, nice Season.
Gerard Dombroski (46:29):
Gallery Season Gallery.
If you go, make sure you givethings a little prod, see it
wobble See it wobble, are youallowed?
Sam Brown (46:37):
to sit in the chair.
Gerard Dombroski (46:38):
Yeah, as long as you haven't got sharp studs
on your pants or a dirty bum.
Sam Brown (46:44):
Nice.
Gerard Dombroski (46:45):
It's pretty comfy, so have a seat.
Sam Brown (46:48):
Do you know if you've sold many pieces?
Gerard Dombroski (46:50):
Yeah, we've sold nine things, so far Cool.
Sold a good chunk.
Nice man, well done.
People like things enough towant to take them home and live
with.
One funny one was a guy onopening night kicked one of the
cushions accidentally, justbecause it was packed in there,
and then one of the everything'son the ground, so you're kind
of asking for it, yeah, and theywas like, oh, no, I kicked it
(47:14):
and they I think in the end heargued that it was fate.
It was like no, no, it wants me.
He's like can I drill a hole inthe back of it and mount it on
the wall?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, yeah.
It's like can I drill a hole inthe back of it and mount it on
the wall?
I'm like, yeah, sure, yeah,it's just like a roughly 400 by
400 stainless, which I thinkwould be a beautiful wall
hanging.
Sam Brown (47:33):
Yeah.
Ben Sutherland (47:34):
Yeah, it's a great idea.
Gerard Dombroski (47:35):
Yeah, I want to put things on the walls, but
yeah, I wanted to really be abit relentless on the floor
surface.
Sam Brown (47:44):
Nice that he checked with you that it wasn't going to
compromise your vision oranything.
Yeah, it's very nice.
Gerard Dombroski (47:49):
There were a couple of beers.
Yeah, it was a whale of a night.
That was very fun.
There was a lot of people there, very stoked that lots of
people came.
So if you're listening to thisand you came, big, big thanks.
It's time to roll out the red carpet.
Limited release 29 is a red IPAbrewed with a complex wrist of
malts and a big blend ofheavy-hitting American hop
varieties, showcasing boldcitrus and berry fruit
characters on top of a lusciousred toffee malt cushion.
Sounds like a lovely red steelcushion I've recently seen at
Cesar Naltaroa in Auckland.
(00:22):
Check out this drop like theexhibition before it's gone.
Today we have the absolutepleasure of turning the mic on
one of our own.
Gerard Dombrowski has his firstsolo show, called Inflation, on
now at César Altearoa inAuckland and we couldn't be
prouder of him.
In this episode, Gerard takesus through his artistic approach
(00:42):
from wire brushing inside acube to scattering objects on
the floor.
His insight into the connectionbetween art and architecture is
not to be missed.
Get down to season before the12th of July to check out the
exhibition and swag back on awobbly chair Time to dive in.
I'm super keen to pick yourbrain about the exhibition and
(01:22):
how you put it together and howit's gone and all that sort of
jazz.
Also.
I think it's worth probablyjust giving a quick
congratulations to Ben ArchitectBen, we haven't done that on
the pod yet.
Well done, buddy.
Ben Sutherland (01:36):
Stop it.
No one even knew I wasn't.
Sam Brown (01:38):
Welcome to the club.
We're now three architects, youcan now speak with validity on
this.
On this show.
Ben Sutherland (01:48):
I've leveled up.
Nah it feels good.
It's like a chapter that tookme 10 years to close, but yeah,
got it done made it a little funyou get to pay all that, get to
pay all those exorbitant feesand ramp up your insurance.
I haven't done any of thosethings yet.
Early days.
Sam Brown (02:07):
Going around to it.
Ben Sutherland (02:08):
Yeah, yeah, no, it feels good.
It actually does feel good,nice bro.
Sam Brown (02:12):
Nice, oh, congratulations.
Gerard Dombroski (02:14):
And look at that sweet new beer.
Sam Brown (02:15):
architecture, branding yeah, I like it.
Look at that T-shirt, yep.
Ben Sutherland (02:19):
Rolling the nice new kind of dolmen.
Thanks, nice new kind of dolman.
Thanks to the man himselfPretty sick.
I'll get myself one of those.
Sam, you've done a companybrand recently.
How do you compare yours tomine?
Sam Brown (02:32):
I like yours.
Ours is a little bit different.
Here's our little businesscards.
Ben Sutherland (02:36):
Yeah, yours is fancy Mine is just a couple of
guys.
An illustration of two guysplaying golf.
Sam Brown (02:45):
That was me and Johnny Dusty as the day after
the dream, the day after theSouthern NZIA Awards.
Ben Sutherland (02:54):
Knocking the ball about how we're a golf
course.
Yeah, big congrats to.
Sam Brown (02:58):
Arie Architects for naming that as well, and another
one recently with Robin, robin,maria's yeah yeah, niche the
well the well, sorry window andglass association of new zealand
.
Nice residential carpenter inwellington glazed home of the
year.
That's a nice award it's amouthful.
(03:22):
It's cool, though, yeah it'shard out.
Ben Sutherland (03:25):
Yeah, it's actually kind of cool to be.
I'm sure there's got more tocome as well.
I'm sure it's nice.
Sam Brown (03:29):
I just reckon it's cool knowing that there's.
You know, I wouldn't have neverknown there was glass awards
out there.
There must be.
There's probably like plumbingawards and tiling awards and of
random things out there, Iimagine, do you reckon
accountants have awards?
Yeah, best Spreadsheeter yeah.
Ben Sutherland (03:47):
Fastest.
Sam Brown (03:47):
Exceller.
Gerard Dombroski (03:48):
Oh, I love those Excel videos.
The.
Sam Brown (03:50):
Excel Award.
Gerard Dombroski (03:52):
Excelling at Excel Excel World Champs.
Boom yeah, that's an accolade.
Ben Sutherland (03:59):
Look at us all doing stuff.
So many puns, so many puns.
Sam Brown (04:02):
That's too good, but look at us all out there doing
stuff.
Gerard Dombroski (04:06):
Professional.
Sam Brown (04:07):
Yeah exhibition.
Gerard Dombroski (04:08):
That was a good time yeah mate.
Ben Sutherland (04:10):
It was full on, it was good, had a couple.
I have to say I made it to theopening evening and I was the
first person in the door, Ibelieve, or one of them, no wait
.
I was the third, after Gerardand Augie, and got to take like
a photo of the Raw exhibitionand damn, it looked good, I must
(04:31):
say.
Sam Brown (04:34):
Gerard, tell us, give us the elevator pitch.
Gerard Dombroski (04:36):
for those that don't know about it, I don't
know if you find yourself inAuckland before the 12th of this
month.
So by the time this episodecomes out it's probably closed.
Sam Brown (04:47):
So you might be no we might try to get this out
before it closes you reckon itmight come out on the 8th.
Gerard Dombroski (04:53):
Yeah, all right, so you've got four days.
Get yourself down to Grey Lynnto season our Te Arawa gallery.
It's my first solo, so I'd bepretty thankful to old J francis
for entrusting me with a solomomentous occasion in my uh art
career what is that?
Ben Sutherland (05:13):
what was the theme?
Yeah, what is that?
Gerard Dombroski (05:17):
um, it's kind of wobbly objects, wobbly vases,
so it's kind of like alandscape.
It's almost a garden.
So what is it?
It's probably 19 odd objects.
There's two chairs, sick chairs, four cushions, and then the
rest are vases Of varyingheights and scales and widths
(05:38):
and shapes.
Sam Brown (05:40):
Long, tubular one.
I love that.
That one's sick.
Gerard Dombroski (05:43):
So we kind of arranged it as kind of like a
culmination.
So there's like an event, aclimax, at the end and it drops
off again afterwards.
So we kind of laid it out so,as you're walking in the door,
it's like quite an impact, andthen you get to sort of walk
through the garden.
So, yeah, it was way more of aspatial experience than, like, I
(06:07):
knew it was going to be spatial, but it was like probably more,
more of yeah, it worked betterthan I was expecting it to do
you reckon that that evolvedduring, like the making of the
pieces, or was that more on thesetup?
both are pretty key.
I think the setup.
We just angled the heights kindof in order roughly, so it kind
(06:30):
of peaked on the chimney one.
If you're listening to this andyou don't know what we're
talking about, we're justtalking about a whole bunch of
bubbly objects, really.
Yeah, so it's just a room fullof hydroformed objects.
But the way I put it togetherwas pretty instinctually Like.
We've talked about my designprocess quite a bit by now, so
it's like didn't draw many.
(06:51):
I drew some stuff at the veryend, just before I was making
the chimney as, like, how Iwanted to arrange the space Was
like I needed that verticalelement in there.
Sam Brown (07:03):
Is that that sketch you put up on your Instagram?
Ben Sutherland (07:05):
No, that was no, that's just a drawing of the
actual exhibition.
But I don't know if that'sentirely true, gerard, because
you actually sent me a digitalversion of what your concept was
, I guess, and it was definitelylike scattered objects.
Someone's walked in the doorwith a tray of vases, had fallen
(07:31):
over and like it's kind of likescattered over the ground.
Sam Brown (07:34):
yeah, you showed us that at the end of the recording
one day but, I, think at thattime you were thinking that they
were going to be candle holders, or was it always vases?
Ben Sutherland (07:44):
oh, it was a vase, was it always vases?
Oh, it was a vase.
Yeah, wait, is it vases?
Or vases oh don't get into thatPotato, potato.
Gerard Dombroski (07:52):
Yeah, like there's definitely some yeah
trying to figure out what Icould fit on a sheet of steel as
well, so there's a little bitof loose massing.
Sam Brown (08:01):
And on the back of your truck.
Gerard Dombroski (08:05):
That was just lucky.
I don't know how you fittedthem all on there.
That one was not planned at all, I just got lucky.
Ben Sutherland (08:11):
Maybe do a bit of planning next time.
Do your best and jib the rest,silicon the rest.
Gerard Dombroski (08:20):
Yeah, because I was straight off the back of
Mayfair, which I made ahydroformed table, and two
stills that had a rock on it,which I was lucky enough to have
an awesome couple buy that.
So that meant I had one lessthing that I was planning to
have in my show at the previoustime.
(08:40):
So then I had like a month offull send in the workshop.
Really it was pretty hectic,yeah nearly had a heart attack,
didn't?
Really didn't take a day off,just we almost died afterwards.
Sam Brown (08:55):
Let's not dwell too much on that, but worth probably
noting.
We'll get to that this manwalks this man works hard, we'll
get to that.
Ben Sutherland (09:05):
This man works hard.
So, yeah, hydroforming foranyone out there who doesn't
know is basically he welds allthese objects in a shape
together and then also welds atap connection and then uses a
water blaster to pump it full ofwater so the steel shape
expands outwards in kind of anorganic, random form, and then
(09:31):
basically, yeah, cuts the tapoff, welds it and cleans it all
up and that's the object.
Does that sound?
yeah, about right, gerard prettymuch bang on, so yeah and I, I
have to say I think like therewas a couple of my favorite
objects.
Obviously the coffee table waslike a easy win, but I think my
(09:52):
personal favorite object was therocking chair, where it's like
basically like this bighydroformed cube so it was kind
of cubed steel cube with somekind of roundness and that
natural roundness from thehydroforming created like a
natural rock and then just cutout the seat area and filled it
full of cushions.
Looked so cool and was actuallycrazy comfortable and the
(10:16):
rocking worked so well.
Gerard Dombroski (10:18):
That's definitely the most comfortable
chair I've made, which was theintention that was.
That was a win.
That was one of the ones thatwas designed beforehand.
That was in my mind.
It's been part of mum's houseproject, so in my mind there'll
be that one and then like a, asofa version of it but she got
dibs on that uh, well, hopefullyit sells.
Ben Sutherland (10:41):
Yeah, she might get v2, but but wait, what was
the sofa going to be like?
Three times that?
Yeah, just the same thing.
Is it rocking as well?
You got like three peoplesitting on the couch rocking
back and forth, yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (10:54):
That's cool, that'd be kind of fun.
All very annoying.
Yeah, probably the latter,imagine two young siblings Worse
than sitting beside each otherin a car?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that scale I found wasreally fun to hydroform because
it's quite a big shape, a lot ofwater.
Ben Sutherland (11:12):
When I made that , maybe one cubic metre of water
.
Gerard Dombroski (11:16):
Yeah, yeah, essentially, when I made that,
like the whole rockiness becamemore feasible as a concept in
itself, it's kind of a strongenough movement, an idea, to
kind of tie an exhibitiontogether.
I thought so pretty much.
Well, all of the objects arerocking objects and the tippier
ones all have concrete in thebase, or the smaller ones that,
(11:40):
like a flower, may overbalanceit, those have have concrete at
the bottom as well.
Sam Brown (11:44):
Did you cast the concrete in then kind of like
weld the form up around it, thenhydroform it?
Ben Sutherland (11:49):
Pour some concrete in the bottom.
Sam Brown (11:51):
Or just pour concrete in the bottom, at the end.
Gerard Dombroski (11:53):
Yeah, so I had to drill a hole to weld in the
hydroform spout Sorry, the vasespout, because they're still
functioning vases, but just witha little bit of welded tube in
there.
Because they're stillfunctioning vases, but just with
a little bit of welded tube inthere, sure, so we just rammed
brick mortar in there, nice.
Ben Sutherland (12:12):
The thing I liked about the ballooning
effect of the hydroform is therewas somewhat of like a negative
detail around the bottom, solike that rocking aspect also
created like a real nice kind ofnegative detail where it's like
a shadowed line around thebottom where it kind of makes a
shadow.
A shadow, yeah, exactly ashadow line around the bottom
that makes it seem like it'sfloating that was really cool.
Sam Brown (12:31):
Yeah, I like that.
When you're making them dry,did you like?
Do they ever just explode?
Gerard Dombroski (12:37):
definitely yeah.
Yeah, some the shape might havecorners that don't want to
hydroform very well, like atight inside curve will
ultimately pop pretty quickly.
Yeah, buttons tend to poppretty quickly.
Previously I've pretty muchalways done buttons, so this was
like a liberation of buttoningwhich kind of allowed me to pump
(13:02):
it up fuller and get like arounder, softer, more cushiony
sort of shape.
Sam Brown (13:07):
When you say buttons, what do you mean by that?
Ben Sutherland (13:10):
Like cushion buttons yeah previously I went
to like little cushions.
Gerard Dombroski (13:15):
So I'd weld a rod through the middle and then,
yeah, you'd get the puffingaround the button point Right.
But without that you just get avery full rounded object
because ultimately, like, peopleuse hydroforming to make
spheres.
So if you weld up a very basiccircle net, if you turned all
(13:39):
the triangles down in yourcomputer model, so like a two
circle caps and some cones, thenyou can pump that out into a
perfect sphere if you pump ithard enough, right, crazy.
So that's how it works.
Ben Sutherland (13:50):
What was PSI you're putting into that beast?
Oh, I actually have no idea.
Gerard Dombroski (13:54):
I put a pressure reader on my first ever
hydroform and I've never putone on since.
What was your first one.
Can you remember that?
Ben Sutherland (14:07):
It looked like a sie, a civ, so it's like four
bar or something.
And and, um, are we?
Are you allowed to talk aboutsome of your more ambitious
future projects?
Gerard Dombroski (14:15):
yeah, that the scale of a gallery is really
exciting, but at the same timeit kind of fuels this need which
initially was the.
The yeah, like the whole pointof the workshop in my mind
initially was building researchor the place you'd learn, but
ultimately you'd want to tie itback into architecture.
So I think, like I've pushedthe hydroforming quite far now
(14:37):
in the art sculpture realm andit would be pretty nice to push
it into the architecture realmand I think it's just very
feasible to.
I need to do a little, maybe asmall shed for a desk as a
prototype for some other biggerpotential projects we have
(14:58):
coming up where we're looking tohydroform some more 30 square
meter sort of size buildings.
Ben Sutherland (15:04):
That's a lot of water.
Yeah, that's a lot of water,yeah that's a lot of water.
Gerard Dombroski (15:07):
That's a lot of water so we're, we're still
in, like the feasibility side, Iguess, of this, because it's I
don't know, I don't know of anyhydroform buildings that's like
90 cubic meters of water.
Ben Sutherland (15:22):
How many liters?
Gerard Dombroski (15:24):
is that.
Sam Brown (15:24):
A lot.
You may as well like you justhave this beautiful hydroformed
building and then an Olympicswimming pool beside it and you
just take the water from one endto the other.
Ben Sutherland (15:32):
I've been talking to a mate who has a farm
You'd want to do it mid-winter,surely, so there's no drought.
Yeah, your neighbors might notlike you, yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (15:50):
As might not like you.
Yeah, as long as you do itsomewhere where you're not
paying for water, ideallysomewhere where I don't know,
let's say it's 70 000 liters orsomething.
You want somewhere where, ifand when that a weld explodes,
it doesn't compromise anythingwhere all that water goes.
Yeah, and then you're gonnahave to have some pretty uh, I
don know some tight health andsafety measures in place.
Sam Brown (16:07):
You're not going to want to flood some houses out or
something.
Yeah, you probably don't wantto Not really one to do in situ.
Gerard Dombroski (16:14):
Nah, maybe for a rural property.
Rural property would be a meanone to prototype, yeah, but you
wouldn't want to be near iteither while it's filling up
Boom.
So there's, I don't know lotsof little things to think about,
but it's kind of where my mindgoes immediately is jumping to
those little problems.
Sam Brown (16:34):
It's kind of cool, dude, that you're looking at a
way to transfer this, thislearning and this knowledge,
because one thing I thoughtabout through all of of this is
you've done so much of it, andquite intensively as well.
You haven't grown tired of thisline of inquiry yet.
Yeah, stranger, yeah, it's cool.
I mean I reckon it's awesome.
(16:55):
It's kind of it's kind of coolto hear that you've that, you're
you haven't grown tired of it,but more like quite the contrary
, it's sort of growing.
It's growing the the Euroambition, which is pretty
interesting.
Gerard Dombroski (17:08):
Yeah, and I think I don't know I'm somebody
who jumps right in Next yearwe'll be doing office blocks.
Sam Brown (17:15):
Hydroformed planet.
I want to make it the biggestcube in the world.
It's just what the Death Starwas the Death Star.
Ben Sutherland (17:25):
The ultimate hydroforming goal the Death Star
.
The ultimate hydroforming goalthe Death Star.
Gerard Dombroski (17:30):
Well, there's another idea of explosive
forming which could be a chuck,a stick of dynamite inside.
Sam Brown (17:36):
TNT in there.
Gerard Dombroski (17:38):
My little brother's an armorer.
So I wonder Maybe mining peoplewould have more mining people.
They would have more explosivespeople which you could probably
get involved.
Ben Sutherland (17:53):
So there, dried ice and water, there's a
possibility there.
Gerard Dombroski (17:56):
Have a play with the process a little bit.
But yeah, I think seeing a justlike in my mind, a very basic
child drawing of a house like agable with a window and and they
go fat, yeah, then like youpuncture through these like real
crisp door and window, I thinkit's could be, and then it's in
(18:20):
like polished, stainless orsomething.
It's kind of too an appealingidea to pass up on yeah man
needs to be, needs to be actedon?
Ben Sutherland (18:28):
I think to yeah prototypes will have to be done
well I was thinking like thesmall full of water I was
thinking the small scale one,the rocking.
Gerard Dombroski (18:42):
Yeah, initially I want to build one
just the size of the back of myute, so I can fit it on the tray
if need be, which would be 2.4by 1.8 or something.
You could just leave that witha curved underside and chuck it
on a lawn or something, and thenyou'd build a timber floor on
(19:02):
the inside.
But then I think, spray foamingthe inside walls it becomes
like a container for that.
Yeah, the hydroforming checksfor leaks.
So then you know it's 100waterproof and then spray foam
it to stop condensation and thenlike a thing, even maybe like a
stucco plaster on the inside,like you'd sculpt it back so it
(19:24):
follows the walls Totally.
Yeah, you wouldn't want to losethat natural form on the
interior.
It'd be such a shame though.
Sam Brown (19:33):
It seems like such a compromise.
Yeah, Go inside and it's justlike a generic box You're like
oh.
Ben Sutherland (19:39):
Just put like a box in.
It would be quite funny.
I know someone with a farm.
Sam Brown (19:44):
If you need some water and space, Back to the
exhibition, because I mean thearchitecture side of things we
could talk about all day, butthe exhibition side of things I
mean particularly for, I guess,myself and probably you too,
being pretty foreign to us howdid you go about one deciding
what to do?
Like, obviously you've talkedabout this idea of it like being
(20:05):
a, you know, a walk through a,through a garden and the idea
like the growth and the in thecome down type thing, but like
did you just play around andkind of like what landed, landed
?
And then from that how do yougo about even curating the show?
Gerard Dombroski (20:20):
I think there's.
There's a real interestingstory there.
Like I had a month and a tablethat I was loosely planning on
having in that was no longergoing to be in.
So it was like the race ofgetting as many hydroformed
objects was kind of started.
So I had my friend SarahBookman come down and she helped
(20:42):
me for a solid week of we werejust chopping shapes and
hydroforming them.
It was very playing.
Yeah, it was really off thecuff.
It was like no, except likethere was a couple things like
um wanted to make like a littlereference to like the old
chimney on dot cuts, so that bigwedge tape written wedge sort
of thing.
It's like a motif that I'vebeen playing with a little bit.
(21:04):
That was like the first one andthen we started making shapes
and then I made like a littlearchway one and that just seemed
very cute.
So, then that led to a doublearch bench.
Sam Brown (21:18):
Yeah, the aqueduct, one is sick.
Gerard Dombroski (21:20):
I really like that.
Yeah, I loved that one.
It worked out really well.
I hope somebody takes that home.
Another table that I have, whichis another rock table, which I
was initially building for theart fair, but then I realized I
had way less space than Ithought I had, and this one was
a full-size dining table whichis kind of like a lattice.
(21:41):
It was like two bits of steel,two bits of steel, two bits of
steel, two bits of steel, fourbits of steel, four bits of
steel.
So it's like a reference toKing Okuma's Bridge Museum,
which is like a central pole,and then like layering up of
timber that goes up and holdsthe building Real beautiful
building.
So this table has like and it'sall stainless.
(22:04):
So it's like a whole differentlanguage to like the cushion
stuff.
So then I was in my mindplanning like a couple of those
sort of layering up ideas andultimately I ran out of time and
I built the table but it wasslightly wobbly in the corners.
Everything sits on a 38mm solid, stainless bar which is like
(22:27):
you pick up the bar and you'relike there's no way I'm bending
this, and then, as soon as youbuild a table, then you press on
the end of the table you cansee the bar wiggling a little
bit.
Damn, it's amazing how much alittle lever arm will do to
something.
Yeah, yeah.
Sam Brown (22:45):
How heavy is?
Gerard Dombroski (22:45):
that table Pretty heavy.
The top's what 2.2 by 9 or 9.50, 3 mil.
So there's a lot of steel there.
Yeah, and then you've got thelayering up of lots of steel
fins as well.
It looks beautiful.
It's on the basis of a bit ofwhite marble cut off of one of
(23:07):
Joe Sheehan's Fetch Streetsculptures, so there's like a
really nice story to the table.
And then I had six stools thatI was planning as well, which
were like circle drums, circlewalnut drums, so like just
perfect circle tubes, which Ihave all the material for now
(23:29):
Been a month to build, so prettymuch everything in that show
and then that table and chairs.
And then I was in my mind Ineeded like more steel fin
things to offset, to like toread, within that landscape of
hydroform objects to place theseother things.
I think, yeah, running out oftime essentially was the best
thing for me because I left myown devices.
(23:50):
I just make too many things andI think the show is good
because it is restrained andthat it's like one object, two
materials, red, red andstainless and then it's just
like like the landscape and theflowers kind of get to speak to
each other.
Sam Brown (24:06):
Yeah, and I can see it being because it's quite.
I mean, it's a beautifullycultivated space, but it's not
an enormous space, right?
So you could see it filling uppretty quickly and almost being
overwhelming.
Gerard Dombroski (24:18):
Yeah, it's 16 metres by like 4.8.
So that was intimidating.
It was like there's a lot ofspace there and yeah, I guess
that empties big like really bigyeah yeah, but I didn't really
factor in that the first fivemeters doesn't really have
lighting.
So, yeah, my calculations wereincorrect in the first place.
Sam Brown (24:42):
Yeah, did you play around a lot with arrangements
and plan before you got there?
Gerard Dombroski (24:49):
no, I had a sketch which was like just
imagining this sort ofscattering of objects, but that
didn't have the point and thetapering down that was just like
full scattering.
Scattering kind of happenedwith francis when we were just
arranging it, the gallerycurator, yeah, and that happened
quite quickly.
We just arranged it and it waslike, oh yeah, that's actually
pretty awesome, let's just leaveit like that.
Sam Brown (25:11):
That was relatively stress-free did francis have
quite a bit of input into thecuration, or was it a bit of a
like a collab between you guys,or was it more driven by them,
or loosely?
Gerard Dombroski (25:21):
but it was, I guess, mainly.
It was like gerard, where doyou want to put your things?
And yeah, yeah, I guess itstopped before it stopped.
Yeah, it stopped me doinganything stupid yeah, that's
quite nice to have that freedom.
Sam Brown (25:34):
I've always wondered how that works with solo shows,
how much the like gallerycurator dictates versus how much
the artist gets to dictate.
Like obviously you as theartist have a vision, but
curators are curators for areason.
That's the equivalent of.
I've always found this funny.
When I'm on a shoot with SimonDevitt and I'll be like I think
(25:55):
this will be a nice shot andhe'll be like he'll hear me.
He'll be like okay, that shotnever comes through the proofs.
You think you know, but theexperts also know yeah, I guess
we're.
Gerard Dombroski (26:06):
We're also blessed, then, with elder sam
hartnett taking some nice photosof the gallery, which is, yeah,
it's pretty cool to have thosephotos.
Yeah, all around pretty stoked.
Um, I think whilst I built itall in a month, it was probably
best that I only had a month,because I would have kept going
to over complicating and thenjade and francis would have to
(26:28):
step in more and be like no draw, that doesn't work with that,
because I get a little bitexcited.
I'm like you get on this littlerampage in the workshop where I
don't know you just have somany ideas and you're like make,
make, make must make more.
Oh, this idea is awesome.
This idea is awesome.
I was thinking about makinghooks and like pictures like I
(26:49):
used to when I'd sell an objectto somebody.
Um, give them a little bit ofsteel with like a real crude
plasma cut drawing, so like alittle sketch or just something
absurd.
This is just like a real grossscribble, but in steel.
So then, I was like oh man, Ishould do some of those, but I
think all of these things wouldbe cool exhibitions by
(27:09):
themselves, like a bunch ofsteel drawings.
Sam Brown (27:14):
Yeah.
So that begs the question doyou have another show planned?
Not?
Currently but uh, take, take,take some time off there's,
there's many in my mind.
Gerard Dombroski (27:24):
Yeah, I guess that then leads us to the
probably overdoing it for amonth and then kind of having a
weird thing on the side of theroad way to Wanganui for the
night.
But yeah, I think I may havejust overdone it on the weird
spasm.
Sam Brown (27:38):
Working front.
Word of warning to listenersoverworking is a real thing.
Exhaustion will fuck your shitup.
Basically, yeah, what are wesupposed to do?
We're supposed to record and Iwas like yo, are we recording
tonight?
And ben's like I don't think so.
Pretty sure gerard's in thehospital and I was like what?
Yeah?
Gerard Dombroski (27:58):
it's hard to know where the limit is
sometimes, though.
Yeah, that got that.
That took me out for like aweek and then, like, with some
weird dizzy spells if you worktoo hard, and then I got a cold
for a week, so I've been out fora couple.
Yeah, starting to get back onthe tools, nice Rearing to go.
Sam Brown (28:14):
More making.
Gerard Dombroski (28:16):
Yeah, rearing to whip into this.
First the small scale shed,which I think will be a proof of
concept for the bigger ones,and then I have ideas around the
skin.
You want to be the structure,but then how do you engineer
that formally?
And then do we know anyengineers that work actually in
(28:39):
software?
What I'm thinking of,solidworks.
I think it's incredibly closeto like real life geometry.
Ben Sutherland (28:49):
No way you need a gun engineer someone who's
like super well, probably young,but super design focused, but
also understands the parameters,or just an absolute cowboy,
someone who really doesn'tunderstand the parameters but is
willing to put their name downto anything well, yeah, I mean
(29:11):
like it's somebody retiringworks a treat.
Sam Brown (29:18):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Like you know, you talked aboutthat proof of concept thing.
How could you not just do that?
Surely there's like a businessyou have to test it.
Well, that's right, exactlyright Get a brand to break.
Gerard Dombroski (29:32):
Well, building a mock-up, so it will be tested
.
Sam Brown (29:34):
Yeah, exactly right.
I don't know, take it to brandsor something and get them to
chuck it on the-.
Do they have a wiggle machine?
Yeah, it's not like it's goingto fall down in an earthquake.
No, no.
Gerard Dombroski (29:48):
It's going to be strong, but at some point we
have to formalize it andconvince.
Sam Brown (29:51):
What about?
Here's a question for you.
What about lightning strikes?
How do you?
Gerard Dombroski (29:56):
How do you deal with those, just ground it,
just earth it, just earth it.
But you also won't, whateveryou do.
Sam Brown (30:01):
Do not touch the outside of the house.
Gerard Dombroski (30:04):
I guess I need a big enough earth there.
It's just a jet stream bloodycaravan ultimately, isn't it?
Sam Brown (30:10):
Or just put it on rubber.
That's a really good point.
Ben Sutherland (30:12):
It is basically like a jet stream, some rubber
stilts, so like tires for acaravan, I guess Just a bit of
rubber separation, yeah, baseisolators.
Sam Brown (30:21):
Yeah.
Gerard Dombroski (30:22):
Cool.
Ben Sutherland (30:22):
Yeah, isolators, yeah Cool yeah.
Yeah, like a rocking house withbase isolators, so it doesn't
rock.
Sam Brown (30:27):
This comes back to our everything house episode.
Gerard Dombroski (30:35):
Surely everything inside the house also
has to be hydroformed.
Well, funny, you ask.
I've been thinking about likehydroformed nose and forks was
something I wanted to put in theshow.
I made a couple of plates ofhydroform, some plates.
Well, you just get like weirdchubby handles, like just kind
of comical.
That's my other recent researchis if you're going to weld a
(30:55):
shed then you kind of have to becertified.
So they've been looking intowelding certs, oh right, and I'm
going to send some tests awayto the testing people to see how
dangerously far away from myweld's been good enough for weld
cert.
So then that can inform as towhether I have to get somebody
else to weld up a shed or not.
Sam Brown (31:16):
What are they testing for that, like how strong your
welds are, and that sort ofthing?
Gerard Dombroski (31:20):
Yeah, they'll do an X-ray because it'll be
stainless.
So they'll do an X-ray and thena breakage test, I think Right.
And then you have to do itsupervised.
You essentially follow a recipeof what you're doing
Interesting, but it doesn'tsound as terribly difficult as I
anticipated, because I guessI've never had to weld anything
(31:43):
structural before.
I just weld chairs and vases.
Yeah, usually you don't forgeta building consent for a vase.
Sam Brown (31:49):
Yeah Well, how would you go about getting, I mean, I
guess, if it's under that, well,it's under 70 square meters.
Now, you know, you can kind ofskirt the realms of consent
there?
Ben Sutherland (32:00):
Not really.
It still needs to technicallybe complied To meet the building
code.
Sam Brown (32:03):
Yeah, it there still needs to technically be
compliant To meet the buildingcode.
But where in the building codedoes it say that you can't build
a house completely out of steel?
There's just durability andstability clauses, right.
Gerard Dombroski (32:13):
I don't think that's an issue.
I think the only issue is beinga certified welder and having
an engineer.
That's okay with it.
Give you a producer statementWorst comes to worst, you build
it.
You weld up a roll cageessentially inside of it.
Give you a producer statementWorst comes to worst, you build
it.
You weld up a roll cageessentially inside of it.
And that's easy enough.
Sam Brown (32:31):
You know how I talked about the Disney, not the
Disney, the Guggenheim, billBauer, and how it's just
basically latticework all behindit.
It'd still be kind of cool.
Then you could create thatcavity void and fill that with
foam in your lattice worksstructure it's a bit of a shame
though, isn't it like?
It would lose its purity theidea is don't do that skin as
(32:53):
structure.
Ben Sutherland (32:54):
Call it a day.
No one wants to see an ugly.
I don't want to see one ofthose things in a car, let alone
a house you'd never see it likeit'd be spray foamed over yeah,
either way.
Gerard Dombroski (33:03):
You'd never see it Like it would be spray
foamed over yeah, either way,you'd never see it.
Wow, yeah, that's ourcontingency plan anyway.
Sam Brown (33:09):
Nice.
Is this just for lulls, or haveyou got like a client of mine,
or is it probably just?
Gerard Dombroski (33:17):
I've weirdly got a couple of people
interested.
I think it's epic that peoplewant to entertain this kind of
thing.
Sam Brown (33:22):
Has that come through the exhibition or has that just
come through other channels?
Both one of each Cool, Nice man, that's awesome.
Gerard Dombroski (33:31):
You don't want to count your chickens.
Yeah, what I really love, I'llmake a little shed.
Sam Brown (33:36):
What I really love and you sort of talked about it
when you were thinking aboutwhat items to create, you were
using architectural motif as adesign driver for your art show,
and now you're kind of usingyour art show as a design driver
for your architecture.
That's sort of like this nicething.
Ben Sutherland (33:53):
So I really like that.
Gerard Dombroski (33:54):
It's a nice see-saw yeah yeah, I've just
been um writing some interviewquestions, answers to some
interview questions, for awrite-up on the show, and I've
been kind of talking about thathow it started in the workshop
as doing that reference to thearchitecture, but then
architecture references Like myspiky table was like a reference
(34:17):
to Ishigami's, one ofIshigami's buildings on that
university in Japan, and then,yeah, vice versa, you get the
same influences going back andforth.
Sam Brown (34:28):
What architecture was the inspiration for the pool
noodle couch?
That was door stops.
Gerard Dombroski (34:35):
It was like giraffe stoppers.
I built this, Was it not poolnoodles?
No, no, it's made out of poolnoodles.
Yeah, yeah.
Initially I had that project inmy mind for like two years and
I was planning on making it outof so and comical looking draft
stopper snakes with like googlyeyes and yeah, the breed
stoppers where you put them tolike sail off the underside of
(34:57):
the door.
Ben Sutherland (34:57):
Yeah, the old school, yeah, hilarious.
Sam Brown (35:01):
Tie some snakes together in a world where design
speaks louder than words, whatstory does your space tell?
At Autex Acoustics, theybelieve great design is more
than aesthetics.
Every product they createstrikes a perfect balance
between form, function andsustainability.
Made to enhance how spacesounds, looks and feels, from
(35:23):
using recycled materials topioneering carbon negative wool,
their commitment is to help youshape environments that inspire
people um, how, like zahamodeled, they engineered one of
(35:46):
her buildings purely on softwarebecause it was like too complex
to engineer.
Gerard Dombroski (35:50):
I think like solid works.
If you 3d scanned the shell of,like the house, solid works is
like a pretty powerful tool forstress analysis, right, which is
dangerously close to real life,what it, how it actually
performs.
Yeah, so I imagine like thesoftware.
(36:11):
Now, that is pretty comparable.
If you type in what gauge steel, so then you just you basically
just try to find an engineerthat works in solid works well,
I know one chat gpt if there'sany listeners out there?
Sam Brown (36:33):
if there's any listeners out there that uh that
aren't chat gpt that areproficient and solid work.
Gerard Dombroski (36:39):
Chat gpt is always listening don't do it,
man yeah, this I was talkingabout this the other day I think
like the little hydroformedhouse is like the first proper,
like delving into trying tocreate an architecture that AI
probably wouldn't come up.
That's a big positive for meabout this line of inquiry, if
we can keep things down thatroad Unrobotable yeah.
Sam Brown (37:02):
Yeah, I quite like that idea.
Keep it, keep it away, keep itaway, keep it random enough that
it can't be learnt.
Gerard Dombroski (37:09):
Basically Is that it yeah, that's what I
think, which goes back to thedesign process conversation and
Holtrop basically trickinghimself into designing things
using outside influences.
What does he do?
He made a building out of likea scribble.
You just pick out lines out ofa scribble or like ink droplet
(37:31):
drawings and then you're like,oh, that's my floor plan.
It's very strange, arbitrarysounding things, but fun
processes too.
Sam Brown (37:39):
I kind of like that idea of falling into a solution.
It's sort of like you said whenyou started doing the stuff for
the exhibition you were justwelding up random shapes and
blowing them up and seeing kindof where they led to.
Gerard Dombroski (37:51):
Yeah, I guess our parameters were like we want
a certain amount of this sortof size and then like Set
yourself some broad guidelinesor whatever and just see what
lands in the middle.
Sam Brown (38:01):
I found that quite interesting.
I'm preparing that talk forPULO on Friday.
Is it a live talk?
It is live.
Yeah, I was pegging it aroundhow you kind of develop yourself
as a designer a little bit andthe reason why I asked Gerard,
how long are you going to takethis line of design inquiry?
Because a thing that I'mplanning to talk about and that
(38:22):
is how we've taken that modularline of design inquiry not to
the end of its capability but tothe end of where I feel I can
be not necessarily bothered withit anymore, but I've explored
it enough to satisfy that itch.
Now I want to try somethingelse.
So it's interesting to hear yousay that you're still intrigued
by the hydroforming thing.
I like that idea of you fallinginto a new line of idea or
(38:46):
design inquiry, like you talkedabout just before.
Gerard Dombroski (38:48):
Yeah, it is interesting how long it's kept
me entertained, because I dosometimes have a tendency to
jump from idea to idea.
But I'm definitely not like aSean Godsell where I'm iterating
something in a certain aspect,certain lane it looks like it.
Sam Brown (39:09):
You are iterating though.
Yeah, I definitely am.
All of it's iteration I think Ihave several lanes of iteration
.
Gerard Dombroski (39:16):
There's lots of ideas all going at the same
time.
Sam Brown (39:20):
This one's just sort of the front runner at the
moment.
Yeah, it's one of the spinningplates.
I find it interesting preparingthese sort of the front runner
at the moment.
Yeah, smaller spinning plates.
I find it interesting preparingthese sort of talks because it
makes you review your workcritically, yeah, and your
journey critically as well.
I think you very rarely havethe opportunity, or afford
yourself the opportunity, to sitback and go wherever I come
(39:41):
from.
How did I get here?
What process did I use?
Where, where are we going?
And it's quite nice beingforced to do that in a way and
then being like ah, you kind ofstart to discover a little bit
more about yourself as adesigner and, I think, your
practice as well, which is kindof cool.
Yeah, it's the same as liketeaching, like sometimes you
learn more, more about whatyou're trying to do through
(40:01):
teaching others totally yeah,exactly, I think that's where
that sort of that draw to to beinvolved with uni kind of comes
into it as well.
Like you said, gerard, like you,you can glean really good ideas
from, from the people thatyou're supposed to be giving
ideas to, in a way you knowthere's minds we're trying to
(40:23):
free yeah, well, the I mean Ithink the reason that the reason
that you probably can getpretty good ideas from them is
their minds are free, sounds areall clouded and you'd be
intrigued like.
Gerard Dombroski (40:35):
Sometimes it's the opposite.
Sometimes people's ideas arevery locked into the conception
of a house.
I was brought up in a suburb ofgj gardeners.
When I think of the house, thisis was brought up in a suburb
of TJ Gardens.
When I think of a house, thisis what a house looks like.
So when you're trying toconvince people to kind of
expand your thoughts and reallyopen ideas up, sometimes it's
(40:56):
more of a struggle to pushpeople to actually free
themselves.
I was intrigued by that when Iwas teaching.
I have another strange pictureI emailed off to somebody the
other day.
I was thinking of a modularchapel, so like a outdoor
wedding venue.
You could have like a shippingcontainer with some panels which
(41:20):
you could just erect into anopen a-frame.
So it a real crisp white steeltube frame with some sort of
feather-like sheets of steelplayed on the sides.
But then you just have modules,so 1,200 wide based on a sheet
of steel, you just have like abank of six or seven of them.
Sam Brown (41:41):
Bam, so you can make it bigger or smaller, depending
on how big your wedding is.
Gerard Dombroski (41:45):
Yeah.
Or if you've got an outdoorwedding and then it rains,
you're like, oh no, what do I do?
Well, bam, pop up thisexpanding chapel.
Who did you send that to?
May I ask?
Sam Brown (41:57):
I've got a friend who's a wedding photographer,
just cold called out in the bluehave you got an idea.
It's not a bad tactic that outin the blue.
Have you got an idea?
Gerard Dombroski (42:04):
It's not a bad tactic.
That's exactly what I did.
I emailed them yeah.
I love that.
Well, they double as a marqueecompany.
The first people I'll likelyemail more For me.
I just want another avenue ofcreativity, yeah, and this other
idea that I have floatingaround in my head.
But I think business-wise Simihas legs.
Sam Brown (42:22):
I like the boldness of that as well Chapel marquee
Because I think you've said itbefore, Gerard, and it's another
thing that I've come to thinkof a lot is waiting for the
right client to explore an idea.
It's just never going to happen.
So you kind of need to pushthat stuff onto people.
(42:43):
Instead of waiting for someoneto come and get it.
You've given it out there, andthat way you almost guarantee
the right fit in terms of aclient, rather than having
somebody come to you and then belike, oh, I've got this crazy
idea.
What do you reckon they're like?
Oh, I don't really know, yeah,I promise True.
Gerard Dombroski (43:00):
There's plenty other.
But if you don't ask, you don'tknow wedding companies that I
can pitch it to yeah well, Ialso did it without any pictures
, so it was like yeah, so youjust tried to describe it, yeah
can you communicate this withwords so that'll be the real
imagine?
If that goes ahead, and Ididn't even give them a picture.
Like do you then like createyour own hire company for
(43:21):
rentable church chapels?
Ben Sutherland (43:24):
rentable wedding venues.
You might have to test ityourself first, mate Well that's
generally the way I do things,isn't it?
Sam Brown (43:31):
Yeah, if you can't find the right client, be the
right client.
Gerard Dombroski (43:36):
Yeah, you could build one module and then
you just I've done it before youbuild one thing and then you
move it in the photograph, sothen it looks bigger.
Sam Brown (43:44):
Yeah.
Easy, don't even have to buildone module Until somebody's like
hey, I've got this big weddingcoming up.
Ben Sutherland (43:55):
I need like 16 of your modules.
Get them to put down a depositand you just build 16 or 15 more
.
Sam Brown (44:02):
We've all heard how much Gerard can get done in a
month.
Gerard Dombroski (44:05):
Just have a big weekend, you know.
Sam Brown (44:07):
Yeah.
Ben Sutherland (44:09):
Sounds like it was a month on, two weeks off,
though.
Yeah, yeah, I was out, that'sjust oil rig work, isn't it?
Sam Brown (44:17):
Yeah, yeah, I'm in the mines.
Yeah, you probably could becoming home from work looking
like you've been in the mines.
That much grinding it does, man.
Gerard Dombroski (44:27):
There was a couple of days where I started
making that chair that's the onething I had started making
before and it had rusted over soI had to wire brush that and it
took me like a day of wirebrushing.
Wire brushing inside of a cube.
Oh my God.
Yeah, shit was everywhere Gross.
No air was safe, oh, that'scrumbly.
(44:48):
That was a very dirty shower.
Sam Brown (44:51):
The painted ones?
Are they mild steel, notstainless?
Gerard Dombroski (44:55):
Yeah, they're all electro-galve, with the
exception of that chair whichfor some silly reason I didn't
buy electro-galve.
Everything seems to rust in myworkshop, so try to buy
electro-galve or stainless wherepossible.
I guess the red oxide as wellis like a New Zealand reference.
I think it's classic NewZealand colour.
Lots of sheds and lots ofprimers back in the day were
(45:19):
probably red oxide.
Sam Brown (45:20):
Yeah, any old building you pull it apart,
it'll have red oxide steel in it.
Gerard Dombroski (45:24):
Yeah, somewhere around there's some
red oxide.
Yeah, I think it's a story witha bit of colour and I've
painted the edges ever soslightly a different colour just
to kind of accentuate thatshape.
But that came about becauseafter I hydroformed it I kind of
dry off the water and then,because there's a ground back
edge where you weld, grind theelectro-gal off, then you're
(45:48):
left with a bit of raw steelwhich will flash, rust real fast
if it's wet.
So then I just put some zincspray paint primer on there and
then I kind of created a greysurface with a slightly darker
grey in the corners and then,just hanging out in the workshop
with me, I kind of became quiteinto that accentuated edge kind
of seem to emphasize thepillowy-ness a little bit.
(46:13):
Cool Another happy accident,yeah, so the whole thing was
lots of happy accidents, movingas you go, which, yeah, it was
really fun.
Sam Brown (46:22):
What's the name of the show?
Gerard Dombroski (46:24):
Inflation A Happy Accident yeah.
Sam Brown (46:26):
Inflation, the Happy Accident.
Yeah, inflation, nice Season.
Gerard Dombroski (46:29):
Gallery Season Gallery.
If you go, make sure you givethings a little prod, see it
wobble See it wobble, are youallowed?
Sam Brown (46:37):
to sit in the chair.
Gerard Dombroski (46:38):
Yeah, as long as you haven't got sharp studs
on your pants or a dirty bum.
Sam Brown (46:44):
Nice.
Gerard Dombroski (46:45):
It's pretty comfy, so have a seat.
Sam Brown (46:48):
Do you know if you've sold many pieces?
Gerard Dombroski (46:50):
Yeah, we've sold nine things, so far Cool.
Sold a good chunk.
Nice man, well done.
People like things enough towant to take them home and live
with.
One funny one was a guy onopening night kicked one of the
cushions accidentally, justbecause it was packed in there,
and then one of the everything'son the ground, so you're kind
of asking for it, yeah, and theywas like, oh, no, I kicked it
(47:14):
and they I think in the end heargued that it was fate.
It was like no, no, it wants me.
He's like can I drill a hole inthe back of it and mount it on
the wall?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, yeah.
It's like can I drill a hole inthe back of it and mount it on
the wall?
I'm like, yeah, sure, yeah,it's just like a roughly 400 by
400 stainless, which I thinkwould be a beautiful wall
hanging.
Sam Brown (47:33):
Yeah.
Ben Sutherland (47:34):
Yeah, it's a great idea.
Gerard Dombroski (47:35):
Yeah, I want to put things on the walls, but
yeah, I wanted to really be abit relentless on the floor
surface.
Sam Brown (47:44):
Nice that he checked with you that it wasn't going to
compromise your vision oranything.
Yeah, it's very nice.
Gerard Dombroski (47:49):
There were a couple of beers.
Yeah, it was a whale of a night.
That was very fun.
There was a lot of people there, very stoked that lots of
people came.
So if you're listening to thisand you came, big, big thanks.
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