Aidan Hartshorn

About the work

Madhawu Yiri (pronounced Mud-hore Yiry), explores the ongoing cultural and environmental impacts of the Industrialisation of Australia’s high country water systems. Through processes of water control, specifically by the damming of rivers, rising water levels impede and inhibit the continuation of cultural practices within ancient sites for Hartshorn’s people. As a Walgalu (Wolgalu, Wolgal) man, Hartshorn sheds light on his ancestral and present connection to these submerged spaces, creating his first Murrin (bark canoe) while commenting on the weight of loss and disadvantage for the production of electrical energy.

 

Wiradjuri Dictionary:

Muriin (bark canoe)

Madhawu (heavy, strong)

Yiri (beam of light)

About the artist

Walgalu (Wolgal, Wolgalu) and Wiradjuri peoples.
Born 1995, Wagga Wagga, NSW. Lives and works Kamberri/Canberra, ACT

Aidan Hartshorn is a Walgalu (Wolgalu, Wolgal) Wiradjuri man whose ancestral land resides in the High Country of Australia, parts of the Snowy Mountains in the Kosciuszko National Park and the Riverina region of NSW. His cross-disciplinary practice challenges settler-colonial histories tied to his Aboriginal and European ancestry and identity. Using both natural and industrial materials, his works address the impacts of industrialisation on Walgalu and Wiradjuri Country and culture. Hartshorn was Assistant Curator for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony (2022) at the National Gallery of Australia and is currently Lecturer of Contemporary Art at the Australian National University’s School of Art and Design. Hartshorn presented his first major installation in 2024, titled These violent delights, at the Ian Potter Gallery at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the Country Road + NGV First Nations Commissions.