The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design hosts Torqued & Twisted, an exhibition exploring the work of nine furniture makers and sculptors who use the technique of bending wood in innovative, unusual and eloquent ways. Feb. 10 – June 29, 2012
Wood bending is typically accomplished through one of three approaches—steaming, laminating or greenwood bending. Steaming requires the application of heat and moisture to allow the wood fibers to bend and slide against each other. The bent part is clamped to a form and allowed to cool and dry into a new configuration. Laminating involves using layers of wood cut thin enough to become flexible. The flexible strips are clamped against a form with adhesive between each layer, until the adhesive cures, locking the laminations into the new configuration. Greenwood bending uses freshly cut smaller diameter saplings, often willow, which are inherently flexible due to the high moisture content in the freshly cut wood.
Bentwood came to symbolize the modern movement in furniture design, but it still offers a tempting territory for a range of aesthetic and formal explorations. The artists/designers in this exhibition push the limits of wood bending to create extraordinary functional and sculptural works of art that are conceptually challenging and expand our understanding and expectations of wood as a material.
