The Misused Ironmongery X Taiwanese & British Hardware

An exhibition that celebrates the overlooked charm of common hardware around the world and invites the audience to reimagine hardware in an alternative context. 

｜The Exhibition - The Misused Ironmongery

If each item of hardware presents a solution to a problem in daily life, then a local hardware store provides a collective display, reflecting the life of a community it serves. 

Industrial designer Liang-Jung Chen turns Kiosk N1C into a pop-up hardware concept store, offering ideas of ‘misusing’ daily hardware. The exhibition features a range of utilitarian hardware collected in Taiwan where the project was founded on observations of the local often humorous but intentional misuse of hardware. The project explores the notion that certain subtleties of a parent culture are revealed in the design and use/misuse of hardware around the world. The exhibition also presents the third iteration of the project, in collaboration with designer Will Laslett, a new collection of 10 objects made with British hardware exploring alternative contexts for these semi-finished products.

Together with Kiosk N1C, a special edition product will be launched during the festival, ‘misusing’ the stall clip that can be spotted everywhere in the markets of Coal Drops Yard. A series of events will also take place: a hardware repurposing design workshop with Blackhorse Workshop and a conversation on hardware observation with designer Emile Jones. A must see if you also find charm in the details of everyday objects.

｜The Space  - Kiosk N1C  

Kiosk N1C is a store and event space at the heart of Lower Stable Street. Tucked between Central St Martins and Coal Drops Yard, Kiosk N1C hosts regular events and workshops as well curating the exhibitions and stores you’ll find on the street. In store there is an edit of products that are considerate of the environment, seasonless and built to last. The selection includes clothing, homewares, personal care items and books from independent brands and publishers.

｜The Design Talk - The overlooked charm of everyday hardware 

Date: Saturday 12 September 

Time: 4.30 pm - 5.30 pm

Location: Samsung KX  

Booking details: 

https://www.samsung.com/uk/explore/kings-cross/whats-on/event/?id=D50L9QCI3QP

Curator of The Misused Ironmongery Liang-Jung Chen invites industrial designer Emile Jones to select 15 pieces of hardware in his daily life. Together they will be discussing hardware culture and exchanging thoughts on the overlooked charm of some of the designed objects that can become the background of everyday life; that they can speak of the culture from which they originate, and their potential for reinterpretation and misuse.

｜The Design Workshop - in collaboration with Blackhorse Workshop

Date: Sunday 13 September 

Time: 10 am - 6 pm

Location: Blackhorse Workshop 

Booking details: 

http://www.blackhorseworkshop.co.uk/course/the-misused-re-imagining-hardware-london-design-festival/

This workshop will reveal the potential of hardware – how they are representative of different cultures and often misused in inventive and humorous ways. You will create new objects by re-imagining, re-purposing and customising from a selection of hardware provided. Using workshop equipment and with technical support, you will design and create your own piece to be photographed and featured in the study, before taking it home with you.

｜The Research Workshop - Regent’s Canal hardware research workshop

Date: Sunday 20 September

Time: 3 pm - 6 pm 

Location: Kiosk N1C

Booking details: 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/regents-canal-hardware-research-workshop-tickets-121236362223

Join us on the last day of the London Design Festival for an insightful tour and workshop applying the methodology behind the exhibition in Kiosk N1C. 

Starting with an introduction to the project, the curator of The Misused Ironmongery Exhibition - Liang-Jung Chen will share the process and outcomes of the research and design project on hardware culture. We then take a stroll along the local Regent’s Canal to attempt to perceive an urban space and its inhabitants with a fresh perspective and to see what can be gleaned from observations on the subtleties of the use and design of hardware in this environment, before returning to collate, share and discuss our thoughts and findings.

｜The Project  - The Misused 

The Misused was founded by Liang-Jung Chen & Shuei-Yuan Yang in 2018. Each year, the project observes and repurpose hardware in a different country. Each object in the project employs locally-collected hardware that are not necessarily available elsewhere. The collection creates a unique juxtaposition of familiarity and novelty, both in use and materiality.

Following the first study of Taiwanese hardware in 2018, the project went on to study Dutch hardware in 2019. British hardware culture is the focus during the year of 2020. The project had been exhibited in Taiwan Design Research Institute, Dutch Design Week, and Melbourne Design Week.

The exhibition this year is kindly supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (R.O.C.).