Chung's 50 Shelves (Study for MOCA) is a conceptual structure that embraces simple lines, modularity, local manufacturing and shared economies. Fifty identical aluminium units comprise the entirety of the Museum’s retail space. Together, the units form a perfect circle, but break apart to function as seating, tables, and shelving.  In this context, they’re also a display structure for the Museum shop's offerings. Each unit is available for purchase at the exact cost of production. As a result, the structure serves as a diagram for the often neglected side of exhibition making; production budgets, sustainability and ownership. As each unit is acquired, the shop depletes, inspiring new configurations as the exhibition unfolds. The title of the project and editions are engraved into the object’s underside, becoming a souvenir of GTA21. “The fact that it was commissioned for this exhibition in Toronto, makes it part of the city,” adds Chung. This latest vision renews the designer’s commitment to local industries, manufacturing knowledge, and democratic design.

An amount of each sale will go towards the Migrant Worker’s Alliance for Change, a membership based organization of migrant farmworkers, care workers, students and more, learn more at migrantworkersalliance.org.  In conjunction with GTA21, Tom Chung Studio has published the second edition of the book, Local Source, an edition of 100.                                            

Tom Chung (born in 1990 in Vancouver; lives in Vancouver and Rotterdam) is an independent industrial designer who established his eponymous studio in 2016. The studio creates context- driven industrial-design pieces for domestic, institutional, and public environments.

WORK IN GTA21:

 50 Shelves (Study for MOCA), 2021

Aluminium