Opus Vincula: Mattresses Bound by Charlie White at Melbourne Design Week 2021.

Presented at Backwoods Gallery during Melbourne Design Week 2021, Charlie White’s Opus Vincula exhibition of experimental furniture uses mattresses found curbside. These discarded objects became the source of polyurethane foam for making furniture and lighting objects.

“After being soaked in a cement bath, wet pieces of mattress foam are bound with chains to create forms,” explains Charlie. “As the concrete cures, the curves of the foam are petrified solid.” The chains are left as a remnant of formwork, ensuring the objects keep their shape as they dry.

This solo exhibition engaged 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.

Charlie White is a Melbourne-based multidisciplinary designer engaged in architecture practice, industrial design and photography. His works are characterized by an aesthetic of sombre extraversion.

Charlie is currently studying a Masters of Architecture and was previously involved with shows by Friends & Associates’ Annual General Meeting in 2019, and Life & Death in 2020.

Related: The Good, The Inspiring & The Talented: Melbourne Design Week 2021 Video Highlights.

[Photography by Charlie White.]