Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Troika’s Restless Bats

troika-pinpong-bat-paddles.jpg A fun and original (hopefully inspiring) use of diverse materials and packaging. These playful designs by the talented Troika studio are perfect for gifting! Troika was invited by the Barbican Gallery to create an event to celebrate Ron Arad's retrospective 'Ron Arad: Restless' at the Barbican Art Gallery. Building on Arad's long standing association with table tennis, Troika created a ping pong tournament with a twist, for which they designed 5 sets of custom bats, more or less playable and inspired by Ron's classic designs. Amazing pieces forcing you to shift perspectives on the game! See lots of pics of all the fun details on the next page!

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In an homage to Troika's favourite piece, Arad's concrete stereo, they casted a set in cement, and created the CONCRETE BATS.

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Referring to Ron's distinctive use of light and Corian, the PING PONG bats have integrated Leds which spell out PING and PONG in mid-air.

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Troika pressed and shaped books into paddles, choosing Nabokov's LOLITA (one of Ron's favourites after which he named his eponymous chandelier) and Dostoevsky's THE IDIOT for which he created a limited edition for Penguin Books.

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Inspired by his early 80's ready made, the ROVER BATS explore the ping pong potential of original Rover P6 V8 3500 car parts, using opposing ashtrays, a seat lever, a gearstick and seat side panels.

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Completing his huge bookshelf which depicts the map of the USA, Troika created the lost states of Hawaii and Alaska as a set of paddles rendered in rusted steel and mirror stainless.

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The Tournament Trophy and the cool boxes containing the 'BAT' sets.

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Still impressed by the PING PONG Corian + LED set (yes they light up and are direction sensitive: PING one way, PONG the other).

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