(Video link here.) Artist Tom Sachs, who we’ve posted about a number of times, recently made a video about plywood. He LOVES IT, uses a lot of it in his work, and has learned a great deal about handling it, which he summed up in this charming, illuminating video. It is totally after-are-own-hearts: in our the ongoing renovation of our Laboratory, we’ve made – and are making –  all sorts of things from plywood…like the floors

made of the tongue-and-groove plywood normally used for subfloors (painted an oyster shell white)…

photo: sally schneider

…sleek window sills and an air conditioner cover below it…

photo: sally schneider

…an enclosure for our old refrigerator (a work in progress; we’re mulling adding a painted plywood door)

photo: sally schneider

…a pull-out shelf in a hidden niche for our oddly-shaped Kitchen Aid, and little drawer for vitamins (all unfinished but usable)…

photo: sally schneider

…we used scraps as solid-blocking behind the sheetrock to hold our defying-the-laws-of-gravity potrack…

photo: sally schneider

….and in the cabinet boxes onto which we installed the Shaker-style doors we designed 25 years ago..

photo: sally schneider

…and of course, there’s the tall, narrow plywood cabinet door with a Gorilla tape handle that be posted recently.

More on all these projects later. Suffice it to say, plywood is a fantastic resource: inexpensive, good looking, easy to use. We love the stuff.

via Core 77

Related posts: tom sachs on transparent design -> making and fixing
is creativity the enemy?
tom sachs’ philosophy of making
copy these: plywood chairs + tables (for kid’s or adults)
painted miracle: pink-washed plywood
holton rower’s catalytic art  (plywood + 50 gallons of paint + big imagination)

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One thought on “‘love letter to plywood’ from tom sachs (and from us…look what we did with it))

  1. This is a remarkable video. Dare I say – transformative? What a haunting piece. Thanks for introducing it to us, Sally.

    And your place is shaping up amazingly. Don’t quite get how the air conditioner cover works, but I imagine we will have many posts on all the projects in the future.

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