Junk Funk!

Students at NIIFT show how waste products can be turned into works of art’

What would you do if you had rusty old things in your junkyard? The obvious answer is ‘Call the kabaddi wallah’ right? And one never expects to see pretty lawn furniture,attractive lamps,clocks be designed out of waste. But driving home the point that junk can be funky and all you need is a creative eye are fashion design students of the Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT),who put forth an exhibition of products made out of waste at their campus in Mohali. Initiated by the head of department,Dr Prabhdip Brar,a module was conducted by faculty member Wajahat Hussain,who got the students to dig up the trash and get innovative with the junk. “Waste is a growing problem. In the module we considered waste as a resource for design ideas and aesthetical objects. Recycling and re-use helps in reducing waste problems and students tried to add a new dimension to the waste by creatively using it,” remarked Hussain. The result has been an eclectic mix of installations,kitschy themes,some practical products to those clearly on the edge. Some students choose to go with feasible products like bags and garments,while others wanted to include elements like music into their junk products. “We use broken chairs,cycle parts,beer cans etc to design our ‘Musical Junkie’,” explained the group comprising Kalyani,Navreen,Rahul and Sushant. Elsewhere,student Swati Matta put together old beer bottles to create an innovative glass table top. Giving a practical touch to their creation were students Chandni Singh,Shivani,Gunjan Jain and Soma Midya,who used old table fan covers and cycle wheels to make a garden seat called ‘Silver Queen’. For most students the junk was easy to lay hands on,but what it was harder to create something new. But they emerged successful using the likes of re-used seed cans,welding them together to make a chair to putting together a worn out tyre and a water tank cover to make a clock in a Salvador Dali style! Some even styled a contemporary lampshade out of used tubelights to others who made a pretty ‘memory’ tree out of discarded cycle wheels and broken bottles. And you thought it would all be such a waste!