Undervalued
This tiny exhibition asked thirty-two local creatives to select their favourite example of good design that costs up to $2, €2 or ¥200.
It’s hard to imagine a smaller exhibition – just a number of modest objects scattered, seemingly randomly, across a not-very-large mirrored plinth.
Sitting between the Stylecraft and Mr. Fräg stands at the recent Design-made event in Sydney, the whole thing was so understated it was easy to overlook. And that’s half the point. For Undervalued, Melbourne-based product designer Nick Rennie called upon more than thirty friends and colleagues, from Australia and Japan, to nominate an everyday item that represents good design and costs less than $2, €2 or ¥200. Equally as important, they all had to justify their choices. Alongside the plinth is a pile, as thick as a brick, of A3 sheets, containing those contributor statements.
It’s a great idea. It addresses something that Rennie himself is passionate about. “I’m a true believer that good design should be accessible to all,” he says. Rather than being aimed at educating the public –
Tom Fereday — Kikkoman bottle Ross Gardam — $2 coin Nick Rennie — Retractable lanyard Yota Kakuda — Parasitic bottle David Glaettli — Magnet pin Adam Cornish — Wing nut Anne-maree Sargeant — Staples Simon Kidd — Phillips head screw Ross Didier — Carpenter pencil Helen Kontouris — Cupcake wrapper Marcus Piper — Chop sticks Yota Kakuda — Toothbrush Jon Holland — Nespresso descaling kit Dale Hardiman — Nutino glass Teru Yanagihara — Ichi go masu Keiji Ashizawa — Tawashi Thomas Coward — Cleat Kosho Tsuboi — Paper cup
David Glaettli — Paper paperclip Dale Hardiman — Blister pack Bevan Bochsler — Tyˆ Nant water bottle Simone Leamon — Key ring Ross Didier — Earplugs Lucas Chirnside — Sandwich wrap Jim Hannon-tan — 3D printing rafting Emma Elizabeth — Staedtler pencil Anne-maree Sargeant — Paperclip Anne-maree Sargeant — Bulldog clip Nina Provan — Wooden coathanger Steve Mooney — Condom Nick Rennie — Asics shoe insert Shigeki Fujishiro — Cardboard angle kit Celina Clarke and Simon Christopher — Coffee capsule Jon Goulder — Soy sauce fish Yota Kakuda — Ear cleaner Adam Goodrum — Clothes peg
an arrogant concept, he believes – it’s more a vehicle to show “that we, as creatives, do put a high value on objects that people might throw away, for example.” Friends joke that he staged the exhibition purely as a way of showing his “favourite ever designed object” – the paper foot last made for Asics running shoes. “Someone’s taken the time to design a delicate object with the absolutely perfect material – it’s environmental, a throwaway item that people aren’t meant to notice – it ticks every single box.” He loves the insert so much that he’s stockpiled about twenty or thirty, which is just as well because, ironically, the Japanese company has recently discontinued them.
Rennie has achieved something quite remarkable with such a minuscule exhibition – the capacity to elicit a range of emotional responses, from surprise and pleasure to ennui and outrage. For a show that looks at undervalued objects, that’s no mean feat. You’d be hard pushed not to be thrilled at the ingenuity shown by Lucas Chirnside, who nominates sandwich wrap – “The only tool in the construction industry that can shift entire buildings. It costs less than a dollar and weighs next to nothing.” And it costs a lot less than architects’ regular tracing paper. Helen Kontouris’s choice of the cupcake wrapper, Ross Didier’s earplugs and Adam Cornish’s wing nut all show a bit of thought. However, when entire books have been written about common stationery items and there’s a New York shop devoted to the pencil, the selection of anything we might find on our desks seems slightly obvious.
In their contributor statement, Celina Clarke and Simon Christopher say, “Controversially, we love the coffee capsule!” The use of the word “controversially” and the exclamation mark are, perhaps, meant to soften the blow, but the environmental impact these little bits of potential landfill have shouldn’t be understated, no matter what measures are being taken to improve them on the environmental front. Bevan Bochsler’s ode to the Ty Nant water bottle is equally problematic – Ross Lovegrove’s container may well be a “radical work of art,” but the aim of good design, you’d hope, would be to avoid adding to the world’s woes – using resources to produce something most of us can get quite safely out of a tap is madness.
Ross Gardam’s rationale for choosing the Australian $2 coin is extremely convincing – so convincing, in fact, that Horst Hahne’s “distinctively designed” work is nowhere to be seen, perhaps pinched for its clear value. A spot of superglue might not have gone astray. A
Undervalued was shown at Design-made in Sydney, 27–29 October 2017. It was first presented as part of Melbourne Design Week 16–27 March 2017. A book covering an expanded form of the exhibition is in the works.
“Rennie has achieved something quite remarkable with such a minuscule exhibition – the capacity to elicit a range of emotional responses, from surprise and pleasure to ennui and outrage.”