Plywood: Material of the Modern World

Surprisingly good exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the history of plywood.

I’d seen this was on and assumed it would be quite dull but a friend has been and couldn’t stop talking about it. I then discovered other people who had been fascinated by the show so I had to go. Unfortunately I went the week it finished so I’m afraid you can’t follow up on my enthusiasm.

Plywood is thin, fragile sheets of wood stuck together with the grains running in opposite directions which makes the finished product stable, strong and flexible. The first section of the show looked at the history of the material then round the edges the narrative was the technology of its production and in the centre examples of its use and how it had been used in cutting edge design.

The show itself was beautifully designed with the objects in real space with few closed cabinets, stands made of plywood and information boards mounted in slots in the displays. Everything was very clearly described and there were good videos of the production processes.

Early uses included Singer Sewing machine covers and tea chests as the material didn’t contaminate the tea. I loved the section showing how it had been used for suitcases which were shown with a car made of plywood. However my favourite part was a display of its use in chairs from the classic Charles and Ray Eames designs to Gerald Summer’s entire chair made from one sheet of ply.

Closed on 12 November 2017

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Comments

Katherine said…
Cathy

Sorry I missed it. Plywood is a very flexible (if you see what I mean) material but also a very variable material. I've seen some amazing turning made of sheets of ply glued togather but it has to be high quality or it just chips out.

Richard
06 February, 2018
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