Disco Collapse/posture-correcting back jewellery by Katrine Borup

Piece

The human spine consists of 24 vertebrae, the os sacrum and the coccyx. In between the vertebrae (7 cervical (neck) vertebrae, 12 thoracic (middle back) vertebrae and 5 lumbar (lower back) vertebrae) there are a total of 23 elastic discs, made of cartilage, which serve as buffers to prevent the shock of body movements from affecting the brain. Over time, the discs are worn, and in the Western world especially, many people suffer from back problems; a prolapsed disc is a common diagnosis. Too much sedentary work is one of the explanations, and the solution – both the prevention and the cure – is physical activity and posture-correcting and muscle-strengthening back training.

Disco Collapse consists of 23 balloon discs that can be assembled to form 4 small (disco) balls (which also bear some resemblance to massage balls), which in turn can be combined in pairs to form “dumbbells”. The piece can take on a wide variety of shapes, from the completely collapsed to the carefully assembled. The 23 balloon discs vary in size like the discs of the spine, and the assembly of the balloon snippets plays on the fact that a prolapsed disc is a bulge on a disc that occurs as the soft centre of the disc pushes through the tough connective tissue that surrounds the disc. The balloon discs consist of nothing but bulges. The mouth of a balloon has been integrated to reflect a dream of simply being able to fix a prolapsed buffer by re-inflating it.

Katrine Borup

Piece
Disco Collapse/posture-correcting back jewellery
2013
Balloon ends from long, thin neutral-colour balloon animal balloons

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