idothingsotherthanknit: Committee

Plastic Relics...

"Being fond of using devices of the imagination to aid their search for original work, Committee has chosen to place themselves in a future age, (perhaps a post-apocalyptic one) for this current project. Oil has run out and the material world is no longer as we know it. The left over plastic items, which today we take for granted, are a source of fascination and archaeological interest, perhaps even great value.

This approach prompted Committee to select examples of humble plastic parts that could possibly come to represent the relics of this age and imagined them as strange curios that might even inspire a craftsman of the time to utilise them in a far more precious way than the one they were intended for.

Committee’s instinct was to suggest they might be re-used as decorative lids for a series of tabletop containers, since this would show them off adequately to the 27th century viewer. In juxtaposition to these once mass-produced curios, the lower half of the boxes would be fashioned from traditionally produced Japanese lacquer-ware. The supporting box shape being designed as a black plinth, which is an exact extrusion of the lid profile, making it a shadow of the item cast through time, right back to its deep past in lakes of black oil.

As with their other exploratory projects, Committee is interested to turn well accepted aspects of material value on their head, in order to cast a light on our current situation. Released from their intended service and isolated from their 'sibling' components, the functional detail of these plastic parts becomes pure abstract decoration and the items are venerated for their mystery instead of being overlooked and discarded.

This project is still in progress and is being produced as the next installment from Cibone Editions of Tokyo. Prototypes were previewed at Tokyo Design Tide 2008 and Committee looks forward to presenting the results for the first time in the UK (alongside other works) at the Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition in June 2009."