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SHAHAR LIVNE
CONCEPTUAL MATERIAL DESIGNER
2026 - ONGOING MATERIAL RESEARCH
FINALIST - DESIGN PARADE FESTIVAL 2026
GRANT RECIPIENT - CREATIVE INDUSTRIES DESIGN & STOKROOS FOUNDATION ECOLOGICAL GRANTS
Livne's collection is a critical exploration of this heavily contested material. Each piece investigates different strands of rubber’s complex narrative – the brutal "Rubber Terror" in the Congo under King Leopold II, the nineteenth-century Dutch bioprospecting practices in Indonesia, and the far-reaching industrial complex that seeps into our modern global infrastructures. As objects of historical inquiry, the pieces expose the "governance of violence" inherent in the material's history, prompting a visceral
re-evaluation of our role within the resource-driven world.
THE DEVIL'S MILK
Rubber – a ubiquitous latex plant harvested from the Hevea brasiliensis trees of South America, Asia and Africa – has long shaped the fundamental infrastructure of the modern world. Today, it exists as a silent, largely invisible fixture in daily life – its elastic utility masking a dark, deeply entangled legacy of colonial extractivism, industrial exploitation, and institutionalized violence.
Made by examining the parallels between the human body and plant systems, the objects juxtapose the elastic, inert qualities of raw and synthetic rubber against structured forms that echo industrial and organic tension.
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