Troika's Restless Table Tennis Tournament
Troika was invited by the Barbican to create an event to celebrate Ron Arad's retrospective 'Ron Arad: Restless' at the Barbican Art Gallery. Building on Arad's love for table tennis, we staged a ping pong tournament for which we designed 5 sets of Troika bats, more or less playable and inspired by Ron's classic designs. The tournament, which saw 32 contestants compete on four tables during three hours, culminated in a Super Final. In a match refereed by by world renown olympic table tennis umpire Richard Scruton tournament finalist Huag Shu competed with Arad for TROIKA's RESTLESS TABLE TENNIS TOURNAMENT TROPHY. The breathtaking final saw Arad win with the P6 Rover Ashtrays bat against Huang Shu in the third set. A close call. What a night!
The Restless Bats
The Restless Bats are a collection of 5 ping pong bat sets designed in reference to Ron's seminal design works. Inspired by his early 80's ready made, the ROVER BATS explore the ping pong potential of original Rover P6 V8 3500 car parts, using opposing ashtrays, a seat lever, a gearstick and seat side panels. Referring to Ron's distinctive use of light and Corian, the PING PONG bats have integrated Leds which spell out PING and PONG in mid-air (yes, it is direction sensitive: PING one way, PONG the other). We also pressed and shaped books into paddles, choosing Nabokov's LOLITA (one of Ron's favourites after which he named his eponymous chandelier) and Dostoevsky's THE IDIOT for which he created a limited edition for Penguin Books. Completing his huge bookshelf which depicts the map of the USA, we created the lost states of Hawaii and Alaska as a set of paddles rendered in rusted steel and mirror stainless. And finally, in an homage to our favourite piece, Arad's concrete stereo, we casted our final set in cement, and created the CONCRETE BATS.
The Restless Bats were exhibited in a solo show by Troika at DNA Lab Gallery Brussels in April – May 2011.
ROVER BATS
Rover Ashtrays 9 x 25 x 5 cm
Rover Gear Stick 15 x 15.5 x 9 cm
P6 Gear Stick, red leather, seat side fascia, plywood and foam
P6 Ashtray Covers, seat reclining handle, red leather, plywood and foam
PING PONG BATS
15 x 26 x 2 cm
Corian, LED's, controller
Edition of 5
THE IDIOT & LOLITA BATS
12 x 19 x 2cm
Per bat: 100 pages of the penguin pocket book,
PVA glue and clear varnish
LOST STATES BATS
Hawaii bat 27 x 19 x 1.7 cm
Alaska bat 27 x 27 x 1.7 cm
Mirror polished stainless steel and rusted mild steel, wax coating
Edition of 5
CONCRETE BATS
14.5 x 26 x 2 cm
Concrete and mild steel
Edition of 5
Credits and acknowledgements:
Very special thanks to Richard Yules and his team at the English Table Tennis Association!
Additional thanks goes to Corian for kindly sponsoring the Corian PING PONG bat.
Last but not least Troika would like to thank Luke Bennett for taking the photo's at the event.
For sales enquiries please contact studio@troika.uk.com