Gozzo lamp

This lamp is inspired by Ligurian fishermen's boats, called 'Gozzi', which over the years are restored and covered with many layers of paint to withstand the salty sea water of the mediterranean sea.

Objects worn by use and repeatedly restored to subsist in time acquire a life of their own. They evolve into a patchwork of regular maintenance works and ingenious makeshift fixes that offer a window into the unique life they experienced. Through the sustained relationship between man and matter, the latter evolves from an anonymous object into a meaningful cultural artefact.

The Gozzo lamp was initially designed as a seasonal lamp for the exterior. During summer, it was erected by slipping the wooden mast into a metal socket fixed to the ground. When autumn came and life moved indoors, it was disassembled and hung behind the house until the following season. However, one year, a heavy storm snapped the stick from which the light hung.

I have since repaired it and redesigned it as a lamp for the interior: it was covered with a new layer of paint, fitted with a lampshade and a thick iron base and remodelled with a new mechanism to adjust the orientation of the lampshade. Funnily, as the lamp ages and gets restored and remodelled over again, it will genuinely start looking like a Gozzo that has sailed the seas!

2018-2022

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Restoring the main mast of the original Gozzo lamp

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Welding the frame of the lampshade

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The initial design of the Gozzo lamp before a heavy storm snapped it in two

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The initial design of the Gozzo lamp when disassembled and hung behind the house