Review: Material Consciousness exhibition by Brodie Neill

By Penny Craswell

Australian-born UK-based designer Brodie Neill recently presented a body of work made with reclaimed, recycled and waste materials as a demonstration of circular design at Sotheby’s in London last month called ‘Material Consciousness’.

The show features nine pieces grouped into three categories: ocean plastic, reclaimed timbers and circular metals. “Each design has a story of what it once was, is now and could be in the future. As designers, we inherit these materials from nature, industry, and society and play an important role in reshaping them with better purpose,” says Neill.

In the plastic category is Gyro table, Jetsam table and Flotsam table, all stunning designs with organic shapes and high quality finishes of what Neill calls ‘ocean terrazzo’. Gyro is in the shape of a 19th Century table with a pattern on the tabletop inspired by the earth’s longitude and latitude.

Jetsam and Flotsam were named for the plastics found in abundance in our oceans. Neill collaborated with an international network of scientists, beachcombers, engineers, artisans and manufacturers in order to collect the small pieces of plastic used to make all three pieces.

It was during a trip home to Australia that Neill first struck upon the idea to use plastic waste: “It was back in 2015 when I was in Tasmania with the NGV design camp on Bruny Island. There I was on the exact same coastline that I grew up on, though it wasn’t all as I had remembered. No longer the pristine beaches of my boyhood memory, the shoreline was littered with plastic debris. It was there that it struck me that something had to be done and that I had to find a way – these fragments of plastic needed to become the building blocks of something new.”

In the timbers category is Torso side table in large and small sizes – the shape of the stool is organic, resembling a twisting human torso and the material is a laminated, reclaimed Panga Panga, a rare and endangered tropical hardwood that was salvaged from a school in Leicester where it existed as a herringbone floor.

Also in timber is Altitude chair, a piece made from 700 square dowels of reclaimed mahogany that have been cross stacked. And Longitude bench, a piece also made of cross-stacked mahogany that connect with subtle interlocking joints to form an organic outline – this piece has been salvaged from floor boards in a renovated hospital in Hastings in East Sussex.

In the metal category is Atmos Desk, made with recycled aluminium, and @Chair, one of Neill’s classic pieces also in recycled aluminium. And, in recycled bronze, is Atmos Console that features the same curved form as Atmos desk but with two finishes – mirror-polished void and satin metallic exterior.

In order to tackle a worldwide problem with waste, a big change is needed and that change is being led by people like Brodie Neill. Certainly, in process and quality, Neill’s work elevates the use of ocean plastic in design to new heights.

“One of the biggest challenges is shifting people’s perception of waste and its perceived value. We need to identify the true potential of waste so that it never reaches the throw-away stage and that every precious resource is captured within a circular system.

“The challenge is deeply imbedded throughout generations of industry and culture. As for the benefits, once successful it really becomes quite infectious.”

More on Brodie Neill

More on Material Consciousness exhibition