Design centre Tasmania
1 July, 2021 - 5 September, 2021
About the work
In this work Hashimoto and Keulemans focus our attention on the frailty of reinforced concrete. A technology that has been around for well over a hundred years, modernist architects revelled in the possibilities reinforced concrete could avail. Yet underlying all its apparent – and in many cases realised – potential is the debilitating fact that steel is an alloy made of iron which, when exposed to elements, rusts. When it rusts it expands, causing the concrete around it to weaken and crack. This degradation is known as concrete cancer.
About the Artists
How often do we actively challenge the source of the raw materials that make up the goods we use daily? What is the impact of obtaining and disposing of these materials on our environment, and also on our socio-political structures? What do we mean by a product’s ‘lifetime’, when do we consider the deep geological time that formed the finite raw materials used to create objects, and do we really question the by-products of industry when we talk of waste and recycling?
These are just some of the questions that drive the collaborative practice of jeweller and object maker Kyoko (Kyo) Hashimoto and academic Guy Keulemans. Partners in life and now in practice, Hashimoto and Keulemans met in 2000 whilst studying at the UNSW College of Fine Arts (now UNSW Art & Design), however it is only recently that they have developed a collaborative practice. Keuleman’s work is weighted towards the conceptual research informing the practice whilst Hashimoto’s refined making skill guides the transformation of these concepts into considered objects. Yet, they nonetheless collaborate, equally paying attention to all stages of design and making.
