Handicap

Artefact 14January 2025

A chair with a metal frame and a seat and backrest made from used white and green golf balls. Fixed in dense rows, the balls form a continuous surface with a geometric pattern.

Glowing amber figure torso printed with TRIAR and ribbed shadows

Amber leather-like tablet covered in handwritten Russian text on a white background

Overlapping translucent sheets in amber, orange and green lit from behind

Seated skeletal figure with tattoo-like drawings and TRIAR on its glowing amber torso, against white cloth

Contributors

Materials

Plastic used golf balls
Metal fishing line
Rolls-Royce metal parts
Fasteners

In golf, a handicap lets players of different levels compete on equal terms. Here it puts used balls and car parts on the same level as traditional furniture materials.

01
Shaping the idea
Impulse: TRIAR’s brief to create an artefact from Rolls-Royce parts.
02
Use recycled metal Rolls-Royce parts as the starting material.
03
Develop the idea of a car seat cover made from wooden beads.
04
Replace the wooden beads with used golf balls as modules.
05
Creation path
Define the chair: a metal frame with a seat and backrest made from recycled golf balls.
06
TRIAR Lab formulates the technical brief.
07
The PoKa Bureau team develops the chair design and mockup.
08
Base the mockup on a metal frame made from Rolls-Royce parts.
09
Replace the wooden beads in the mockup with used golf balls supplied by Forest Hills Golf Club.
10
Test the materials and technical solutions with the Architection.pro team.
11
Prepare the structural development and prototype; replace the metal side frame with wood to test the load structure.
12
Return to the metal side frames of the original mockup.

Material properties

Made of: Used plastic golf balls, Rolls-Royce metal parts, metal fishing line, fasteners
Color: White, green, metallic
Tactility: Hard, relief, smooth, elastic
Origin: Secondary
Associations: Industrial, elitist
Size: [W × D × H cm]

Experience (object effect)

Cognitive: Cognitive dissonance
Mode of interaction: See, touch, analyse, use (sit)
Emotional: Nostalgia

Context

Automotive design
Western sports culture
Mass consumption
Ecology

Themes

Object status
Reuse of materials
Transformation of objects’ function
Cultural and social juxtaposition

Artistic toolkit

Contrast of material and image
Ready-made
Upcycling
Use of a culturally recognisable image

Technique

Manual assembly
Modular construction
Upcycling
Metalmaking