Opus Vincula: Mattresses Bound

Melbourne Design Week 2021

Opus Vincula was an exhibition of experimental furniture using curbside mattresses as a source of polyurethane foam to make furniture and lighting objects with. After being soaked in a cement bath, wet pieces of mattress foam are bound with chains to create forms. As the concrete cures, the curves of the foam are petrified solid. The chains are left as a lost formwork, keeping the form as it dries.

Showing at Backwoods Gallery, White’s solo exhibition engages with contemporary design dialogues around the adaptive reuse of materials. The structural constriction employed in the works creates the aesthetic language of sombre, gothic plasticity.

This event was a part of Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.

Graphics by John Szetho