Pallet Collar Chronicles Volume 2

Pallet Collar Chronicles, Volumes 1–4

An artistic craft project by Akay & Olabo. *Pallet Collar Chronicles* marks the culmination of a project by artists Akay and Olabo, centering on reuse, creativity, and the overlooked materials of everyday life.

Millions of pallet collars are manufactured for the transport industry every year. Once no longer needed, they are often left folded up outside buildings, warehouses, and loading docks. Nearly a hundred discarded pallet collars were collected and given new life at Toxoplasma’s workshop, where the wood was transformed into a series of artistic projects.

But the story didn’t quite end when the wood had been used up. Left behind was a box containing the metal fittings from the original pallet collars. Akay wanted to get rid of them, while Olabo saw potential in the leftovers. Perhaps they would come in handy one day. That day arrived—in the form of books.

Pallet Collar Chronicles, Volume 2.
A memory game seemed like a fitting use for the material, but when no one was playing the game, the pieces were merely awkward stacks of wood taking up space in Toxoplasma’s workshop. Furthermore, once the hinges had been sawed off and the boards cut to size, the pallet collars were even less compact and space-efficient than in their original form. Akay and Olabo grew tired of tripping over the material and found a new use for the boards: they used them to build a replica of Sweden’s most notorious staircase, the Sergel Steps.