What’s old becomes gold

ONE MAN’S junk is another man’s treasure, they say, and, sure enough, the 79 items on exhibit at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) – all made from household waste and other debris – are “Pure Gold”.
“Pure Gold – Upcycled! Upgrade!” is the name of the show continuing through July 22. First mounted last year in Hamburg, Germany, it’s touring the world, with Bangkok as its first stop.
Germany’s ifa-Institut (the Institute of Foreign Cultural Relations) organised the exhibition for its centennial, assembling works by 65 designers, including nine Thais. Volker Albus, a professor of design, made the choices in consultation with six curators around the globe.

“Recycling is about using technical processes to return objects to their original materials, such as discarded plastic bottles being recycled as fresh new plastic,” he says. “Upcycling gives them an entirely new function and adds to their value with aesthetics and functionality. 
“All the works in the show were made either entirely by hand or with the help of just simple tools.”

Matali Crasset turns those familiar check-pattern plastic bags into couch modules.

French designer Matali Crasset has seen her “Digestion No 1” – check-patterned, squared-off plastic bags filled with foam that serve as handled modules for couches and armchairs – put to commercial use by high-end Italian manufacturer Edra.

Rip the tape out of an old-fashioned movie videocassette, says Waltraud Munzhuber, and you’ve got an eye-catching handbag.

Fans of “Forrest Gump” will get a kick out of the shiny handbag made of the magnetic tape salvaged from an old videocassette of the 1994 Tom Hanks movie. German Waltraud Munzhuber wound strips of the tape with such textile-like density that it forms a stable, durable material.

Juli Foos of Finland made a “Large Donut Rug” by cutting used cardboard into donut rings, wrapping them thickly in white plastic so they’re soft, and wove the rings together with strips of blue, green, yellow and black plastic bags. The result is a dazzling geometric assemblage and cushy on the feet.

Used cardboard and plastic bags fuse into a soft, donut-shaped rug in the hands of Juli Foos. On the left, plastic untensils and the like become a three-tiered stand thanks to Brunno Jahara.

Brazilian Brunno Jahara fashioned a colourful three-tiered stand that holds snacks or fruit from cheap, mass-produced plastic utensils and discarded water-supply connectors. 
Two Lebanese designers sharing the name Junk Munkez turned the rotating drums from scrapped washing machines into “Knit-Knacks” stools, with yarn fed through the perforations in geometric Arabic patterns and a comfy cushion on top. Inside you’ve got some handy storage space.

Inside this elaborately decorated stool by Junk Munkez is an old washing machine drum.

“This kind of stuff can be made in the smallest workshop or in the home,” Albus points out. “They offer lots of different perspectives on making use of waste with an eye to aesthetics. If they look outlandish, they fire curiosity, creativity and the imagination.”

Eggarat Wongcharit's stool 

On his curator team is Thai designer Eggarat Wongcharit, who’s also showing his “Dondo Ottoman”, a footstool made from layers of cotton fibre, coated with rubber latex and moulded into shape. That’s covered in defective fabric tossed aside in the mass-production of garments. The pieces of fabric are smocked together and attached to the latex skin. 
Another Thai, Jarupatcha Achavasmit, uses defective safety belts to create an elegant textile useful in home furnishings, and has in fact been used at several residential estates such as Ashton.

Detail of wall covering made from defective safety belts by Jarupatcha Achavasmit

“There’s tremendous waste in industrial production,” says Jarupatcha, who owns the Ausara textile brand. “I found tonnes of rejected safety belts at the Wongpanit recycling company and realised they could be used as wall coverings – it’s tightly woven nylon, so there’s great tensile strength, and it’s resistant to flame and bleaching from sunlight. The seatbelts are cut into strips and woven with strips cut from plastic bottles.”

Biodegradable tableware by Roongtip Luilao began as dehydrated fruit rinds.

Roongtip Luilao, who teaches agricultural science at Kasetsart University, has made biodegradable tableware from the rinds of watermelon, pomelo and other fruits. It’s a perfect zero-waste concept.
The flesh is scooped out and the rinds are dehydrated at a specific temperature and for a specific period of time so they harden, but don’t get too dry. After long and careful observation, Roongtip reckons a melon rind will be ready for upcycling after three to four hours at 100 degrees Celsius.
“The rinds’ natural fibres makes them tough enough to hold liquid foods, like soup,” she says. “I’ve attached wooden handles and bases that can be removed.”

Detail of Suwan Kongkhunthian’s "NETT Glass Jar Cover” fashioned from ribbons of pineapple paper

Suwan Kongkhunthian’s “PA.Baco Chair” is built with the leaves of pineapples discarded during the canning process. Stacks of coloured pineapple paper bound with flexible string makes the seat pliable and bouncy. 
 And his “NETT Glass Jar Cover” is also fashioned from ribbons of pineapple paper. The sheets are glued together in a honeycomb pattern, forming a sheath that can stretch to fit atop any size of glass container. 

Saran Yen Panya satirises the social hierarchy with chairs composed of cheap plastic baskets and fancy wooden legs.

Saran Yen Panya, who was born in Bangkok but is now based in Stockholm, created a chair installation with the naughty name “Cheap Ass Elites”. 
Mass-produced household objects like plastic storage bins and laundry baskets join in a satirical comment on the gap between rich and poor and between good taste and bad. The cheap, white baskets forming the backs, bases and arms of the chairs are the “low class”, while the fancy, Victorian-style wooden legs signify stereotypical upper-class preferences.

Curator Volker Albus is ready for the seaside with his cork rugby ball and volleyball.

Albus gets in on the act with a set of sports balls made of cork – the football, rugby ball, basketball and volleyball are ideal for the beach because they’ll float on the water and aren’t as easily blown away as plastic balls. He’s used wine corks, finely ground, pressed into blocks with synthetic resin and cut into the desired shapes.
“These came out of my own experience on a windy beach,” he says. “The plastic ball was always flying away, but this cork ball is solid enough to resist the wind and it can float too. That’s why I call the collection ‘www/www’, which stands for ‘we want wind/we want water’.”

Paul Cocksedge’s “Styrene” pendant lamp puts hundreds of disposable plastic coffee cups to continued use.

Albus personally admires a stunning “Styrene” pendant lamp by Briton Paul Cocksedge, its irregular surface formed by heat-shrinking hundreds of disposable plastic coffee cups. 

Sawdust becomes as sturdy as concrete for these chairs made by Marjan Van Aubel and James Michael Shaw.

And the “Well Proven Chair” by London-based Marjan Van Aubel and James Michael Shaw looks so sturdy that it might be made of concrete, but it’s actually sawdust. They mixed sawdust with organic resin and water to produce wooden foam that’s shaped into smooth seats and backrests, with the rough surfaces kept between the four wooden legs.

NOTHING IS WASTED
"“Pure Gold – Upcycled! Upgrade!” continues until July 22 in the Gallery Room on the first floor of the TCDC. 
Admission is free.
The TCDC is in the Grand Postal Building on Charoenkrung Road and open daily except Monday from 10.30am to 9pm.
Learn more at (02) 105 7400 or www.TCDC.or.th.