Paint buckets, street signs and beaded car seats feature in a series of found seating designs, made by working-class migrants in the United Arab Emirates and collected by artist Christopher Benton.
Displayed as part of the artist's How to be at Rest installation at Dubai Design Week, the eight chairs were spotted at businesses in the industrial neighbourhoods that fringe major cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Benton collected the objects over the course of two years and purchased them from the owners.
Migrants, who account for more than 88 per cent of the UAE's total population and more than 90 per cent of its private-sector workforce.
The How to be at Rest installation is currently on show as part of the UAE Designers Exhibition at Dubai Design Week Most come from nearby South Asian countries in the hopes of finding employment and supporting their families back home. As a result, money is saved to send back rather than spent on furnishings.
"The makers who live in these areas are carpenters, tailors and upholsters, chiefly from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan ? places where the frugal innovation and 'making it work' can be essential to your livelihood," Benton told Dezeen.
"It's their way of 'design thinking'. They would make objects that defied gravity or taste ? but they never defied logic."
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