Future Past

It's unlikely that any product presented in this collection was designed by a "designer" as we know it today. 

Instead, these everyday objects were shaped by pure necessity. They are the result of a ruthless tug-of-war between manufacturing costs, profit margins, and everyday utility. While extreme optimization without a professional designer can sometimes go awry, it occasionally produces accidental masterpieces.

Scoured from the dwindling inventories of Singapore’s oldest household goods stores by Hans as a personal hobby, 24 household products from his collection are exhibited and sold in limited quantities through a vending machine. Exceedingly sensible and surprisingly beautiful, these antiquated artifacts of the past offer an uncanny contrast to the future of design.

Future Past was one of six topics presented by National Vending Gallery.

Conceived as a six-part curatorial exercise, the National Vending Gallery reimagines the vending machine as a device for exhibition and distribution. Through carefully assembled, limited-run collections, the gallery explores thematic narratives that reveal the manifold influence of design in Singapore.

Full list of exhibited objects can be found here.