In August last year the limited edition design collaborative 1-OK CLUB founded by Melbourne based designers Dale Hardiman and Andre Hnatojko, held its first exhibition with work by Australian designers such as Ash Allen, Jon Goulder, and Lianne Rossler (you can see the Design daily post on it here). This year 1-OK CLUB are going one step further in their efforts to introduce limited edition Australian design to the art and design market by taking the exhibition LIVE.

Limited edition design objects from 1-OK CLUB LIVE. Photography Elise Wilken, styling Nat Turnbull.

In collaboration with Assemble Papers and Livestream Australia, the second 1-OK CLUB - with the title WORKS 44-52 LIVE - will open as a physical exhibition in Clifton Hill, Victoria, while the exhibition will also be streamed, allowing a broader audience to attend without the constraints of distance or time.

Another view of objects from 1-OK CLUB LIVE.  Photography Elise Wilken, styling Nat Turnbull. — Another view of objects from 1-OK CLUB LIVE. Photography Elise Wilken, styling Nat Turnbull.

The concept of a simultaneous online and gallery exhibition was originally conceived through an open forum with Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum London. It attempts to break down the barriers presented by Australia’s vast size by delivering a gallery via the internet. WORKS 44-52 LIVE will be streamed live from 122 Roseneath St., Clifton Hill from 6pm, 1 July until 5pm, 15 July, however the exhibition can only be viewed between the hours of 9am and 5pm AEST - just like a bricks and mortar gallery the online exhibition has fixed hours!

Peter Trimble's recycled polystyrene 'A Rubbish Stool' on show at Denfair in early June.

WORKS 44-52 LIVE will present 9 new works by 9 Australian design studios: Ash Allen, Flynn Talbot Studio, Adam Goodrum, Simone LeAmon, Elliott Mackie, MANY MANY, Elliat Rich, Peter Trimble and Melbourne based creative consultancy U-P.

One of the new designs offered as part of WORKS 44–52, is Peter Trimble’s ‘A Rubbish Stool’ (shown left at its Denfair debut) which utilises a pre-existing recycling process and is made from 100% waste Polystyrene. Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) recycled from furniture and electrical packaging, is chipped, heated and compressed to form a polystyrene extrusion. The process removes the air from the material and the EPS is reduced to 3-5% of its original volume.

Made in much the same way as you might make a pie crust with dough, the stool is created by laying the extruded sausage-like cylinders of EPS into a basic mould with the assistance of a few cable ties. Once cooled, the mould is undone and the final stool removed.

Peter Trimble's 'A Rubbish Stool' in the process of being removed from the mould. A still from the film by Lucy Foster.

The project was made possible with the assistance of Monash council whose polystyrene recycling equipment normally creates the reduced volume EPS bricks that are packed into empty containers and returned to China.

You can watch a film by Lucy Foster on the making of 'A Rubbish Stool' here.

Encompassing furniture, tableware, vases and sculptural items, WORKS 44-52 LIVE presents a broad mix of designers practicing both in Australia and internationally. While individual shots of the pieces from WORKS 44-52 LIVE are not available until the exhibition opens on the 1st of July, here are a few reminders of objects from last year's show, WORKS 1-43.