Disobedient Objects

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But some of the most powerful exhibits are the simplest ones – things that engage with the more theatrical side of a demonstration and show how the balance of power on the street can be swung with just a bit of mischievous wit. In one corner, a cluster of gigantic inflatable cubes hangs above a line of placards, like metallic clouds. These are inflatable cobblestones, made by the Eclectic Electric Collective, and used in worker protests in Berlin and Barcelona in 2012, as a way to outwit the authorities. Structure: ceramic tiles on a corroding metal body, abundance of mixed media embellishments, including wooden components How to retain a level of honesty and energy when presenting these objects within a museum environment

Book Blocs’, shields painted to resemble book covers; a form of protest in themselves as well as a means of defence Of course, these ideas would need to be feasibly fabricated in the mount workshop within a relatively short period of time and be suitable for use when the show goes on to tour internationally. For example, if a future venue chooses not to use a similar set build as we did at the V&A, the mount I had made must not be entirely dependent upon this, and should be re-usable.

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What we'd like people to take away from the exhibition is the idea that design isn't always about professional practice - it's something that people can get involved in themselves," said Grindon. "The actors changing the world are doing so using something that they have in their hands already." Occupy George overprinted dollar bill. Image courtesy of Andy Dao and Ivan Cash Testing an inflatable hammer made by Eclectic Electric Collective at the Berlin Mauer Park, 2010. Photo: Jakub Simcik Disobedient Objects goes beyond the political posters that usually represent social movement in museums, presenting high-tech objects such as drones for filming demonstrations as well as handcrafted items such as placards and textiles that reveal the stories behind protests. Icon spoke to the exhibition’s co-curator, Gavin Grindon. All the objects bear a relation to the body, presented as the congealed memories of social protest. The Bread and Puppet Theatre argues that culture should not belong to the elite but be for everyone

Andy Dao and Ivan Cash's Occupy George overprinted dollar bill, 2011. Photograph: courtesy Andy Dao and Ivan Cash Grindon, who is an academic specialising in the history of activist art and current research fellow at the V&A, participated in activist movements and organised workshops with protesters to find out which objects would be most suitable for the exhibition. Banner for UNITE the union at the march in support of the NHS in Manchester. Photography by Ed Hall The V&A is generally recognised as an institution of empire, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, an amassing since its founding in 1852 of the creative heritage of industrial civilisation. So it’s quite extraordinary to encounter in its midst, like a snake coiled inside a Harrods’ picnic hamper, an exhibition celebrating the objects deployed during more than four decades of international protest and political activism, the “art and design from below” never usually accorded gallery space. We didn’t go ahead with this idea in the end, and everything in this particular display case would sit on its own bespoke Oriented strand board (OSB), which is a material that appears frequently in the final exhibition.

The exhibition's approach to identifying and procuring objects is in line with the "rapid response" curatorial process introduced by the V&A recently, which has seen it acquire objects including Katy Perry eyelashesand the world's first 3D-printed gun. Bike Bloc Graphic Poster, Anonymous. Image courtesy of the V&A Museum For me, this piece is all about trying to tell the people’s history of civil disobedience and dissent in a kind of a ceramic way. We’re trying to make these two big pieces that from a distance - when you look at them - they just show the aggression of the state oppression, of authority.