Joseph Townshend

<p>My final piece looks at the artificial evolution of the mock-tudor black-and-white aesthetic due to soot pollution at the time of the industrial revolution. It connects this event with the evolution of the Peppered Moth which turned black at the same point in time to be camouflaged against the soot covered trees.</p>

<p>The work examines this human initiated evolution and architectural natural selection through a material called Replica Wood, which is an oak effect moulded polyurethane plank used on modern day mock-tudor property.<br/></p>

<p>The images depict the Replica Wood being worked into a bench using traditional techniques familiar to the craft, however the rhetoric is staged and artificial. Despite the polyurethane plank mimicking wood, many of the techniques portrayed are ineffective, for example planing the material would entirely remove it’s distinguishing grain. The project plays off the notion of the ‘authentic’ with an approach that is both earnest towards the subject yet reveals the moments of fracture within these everyday facades.   </p>