Waste Age
'Waste Age: What can design do?'Midlands Arts Centre, 2024. Courtesy the Design Museum and Midlands Arts Centre. All photography credits Tegen Kimbley.
We are delighted to share our recent collaboration with Midlands Art Centre in which we were challenged to design and make custom display furniture in keeping with the ethos of their current exhibition ‘Waste Age’.
Waste Age is a touring exhibition by the Design Museum, London and curated by Gemma Curtin and Justin McGuirk and Midlands Art Centre is the only tour venue in the UK shown previously in London, Hong Kong and Paris.
We worked with Midlands Art Centre curator Roma Piotrowska who asked us to consider how to create an exhibition display which complements the values of the exhibition.
“Waste Age: What can design do? is a group exhibition focused on a new generation of designers who are rethinking our relationship to everyday things. From fashion to food, electronics to construction, even packaging - finding the lost value in our trash and imagining a future of clean materials and a circular economy could point the way out of the Waste Age.
The exhibition tells the story of the environmental crisis and marks MAC’s first collaboration with the Design Museum to highlight the current crisis and design’s role in the problem. It also explores how design can transform our waste into valuable resources, promote new ways of living with the Earth and not from it, and where there is no such thing as waste. Divided into three topics, this exhibition explores what lies beyond our current toxic waste infrastructures, exploring the environmental, social, and geopolitical forces at work” Midlands Art Centre
Our approach was to explore materials which had a previous life or the ability to be repurposed, reused or recycled at the end of the exhibition. The selected materials had to complement the values of the exhibition and function effectively to support the various objects and artefacts. We were drawn to the idea of joining together, which led us to create a set of components that could be configured in various ways.
We identified structural components H20 Doka beams previously used within the construction industry, alongside waste timber from previous exhibitions from Midlands Art Centre and studio offcuts from our workshop to add a painterly textural element.
We sourced bright yellow ratchet straps as a method to connect these components, meaning these materials can be easily separated and reused afterwards. This is purposely visible to illustrate this joining method and to add an accent of complementary colour. Therefore these materials can take on a new life after the exhibition and be reused, repurposed, reconfigured or rebuilt.
We asked Roma Piotrowska Curator Midland Arts Centre for her thoughts about working together on this project:
It was a real pleasure to work with Dual Works on the design of furniture for the Waste Age exhibition at MAC.
They developed a unique design for the display plinths that perfectly aligned with the exhibition's ethos. The main structural components of the plinths are wooden Doka H20 eco P beams, sourced from construction sites where they are typically used as temporary supports for poured concrete. Additionally, wood from previous exhibitions and studio offcuts were repurposed for the new plinths.
Dual Works introduced a distinctive concept incorporating yellow ratchet straps, which allow the components to be temporarily fixed, highlighting the importance of reusability. True to the exhibition's values, all wood and straps will be reused or recycled after the exhibition ends.
Their friendly and professional approach made the collaboration seamless and enjoyable, and I was particularly impressed with how thoughtfully they approached the project. It was truly a pleasure working with them.
'Waste Age: What can design do?', introduction video, Midlands Arts Centre, 2024. Courtesy the Design Museum and Midlands Arts Centre. Credit Will Pace.
Waste Age: What can design do?
Sat 26 Oct 2024 – Sun 23 Feb 2025