Disobedient objects

Slightly confused exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum taking as its premise the idea that many social movements start form disobedience and create objects made by people taking design into their own hands.

I think what I struggled with was it seemed to take the premise that all disobedience was good and I’m not sure I would agree. Sure some amazing social and political change has come out of disobedience such as votes for women and equal rights in America but some disobedience is just violence in another disguise. 

I did like the idea of showing objects designed by people for a cause and used by them in their campaign and this included now iconic ideas like the pink triangle for gay rights. It was good to see the suffragette tea set which I think I’ve now seen in three shows this year!  It was also interesting to see practical design solutions not just artistic design such as a gas mask made out of plastic water bottle.

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