Artisan-Crafted Furniture Sheds Light on Environmental Crisis in Dighomi Meadows

WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Nino Kakabadze

An exhibition titled Love Thy Monsters showcased site-specific furniture to raise awareness about the illegal dumping of construction waste in Dighomi Meadows, one of the last remaining riparian forests in the Tbilisi region of Georgia.

The Love Thy Monsters exhibition, held in October this year in association with the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, was intended to kickstart a large-scale renovation project. The project is aimed at transforming a section of a derelict power station into an active community space for the local internet radio station, ‘Mutant Radio’.

Love Thy Monsters was conceptualised as part of RRRUBBLE, a collaborative research project spearheaded by The MAAK and Space Saloon. The project aims to redefine the role of resources and agency in architectural production. The purpose of the exhibition was to draw attention to the harmful effects of waste in society and to showcase the advantages that adopting circular thinking can bring to the global design and construction industries. The MAAK and Space Saloon teamed up to lead a group of local creatives and artisans in a week-long process of play and prototyping, using foraged materials from Dighomi Meadows.

The project team, guided by the ‘material intuition’ of what they found on-site, developed a unique range of furniture. Each custom-made piece was designed to tell a part of the story about the long-term environmental damage happening in Dighomi Meadows.

The project aimed to question the role and agency of materials in contemporary creative practices. The exhibition showcased lighting fixtures, shelving units, and tables of various sizes, along with audio recordings, block prints, and physical samples from the site highlighting their material and geopolitical roots.

Guided by the ‘material intuition’ of what was found on-site, the project team developed a bespoke range of furniture informed by hyper-contextual material gestures. Each custom-made piece told its part of the story on the long-term environmental damage happening in Dighomi Meadows and questioned the role and agency of materials in contemporary creative practices. Lighting fixtures, shelving units and tables of various sizes were exhibited alongside audio recordings, block prints and physical samples from the site, bringing focus to their material and geopolitical roots.

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