LEWIS DUCKWORTH
Splitting image
Manufactured boards have become increasingly removed from their raw material origins and production processes. Plywood is engineered to be a consistently stable and predictable board yet is made using veneers of wood, a natural material that is diverse and characterful in its structure and appearance.
By splitting plywood, a cross section of its production and interior workings is revealed, bringing back the natural beauty of the organic material and our attempts to tame unruliness. The resulting outcome, ‘Splitboard’, rediscovers plywood as a decorative material by reconnecting it with its raw beginnings and manufacturing process. The split brings texture, dynamics and spontaneity back to an otherwise uniform and sanitised material.
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Objects have become increasingly removed from the materials they are made from due to mass manufacturing and overconsumption. Lack of transparency and information about the material origins of our everyday objects has created a shift in our value and respect towards them. Splitting Image aims to change our perspective on the materials around us by reconnecting it with its raw beginnings and manufacturing process. Not only does it physically split the story of a material wide open but it breaks the pattern of perception of material origin.