Take everyday materials such as cardboard, rope, cloth, wood scraps, plastic tubes and aluminium wire, much of it scrap and reshape it into exuberant furniture that reflects the colour, heat, vibrancy, passion and rhythm of Brazil. This was how Humberto Campana (born 1953) and his brother Fernando (born 1961) started designing their unique style of furniture, as the Campana Brothers. Their work continues to involve and now includes more exotic materials such as bronze, cast aluminium, wool and discarded pirarucu fish skins.
Brazilian design has come to the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London with the latest furniture designs of the Campana Brothers, based in Sao Paolo, working in partnership with local communities, organisations and factories to create these pieces of furniture composed using bronze animals, reptiles, humans and birds, with occasional touches of humour like the console table which appears to be entirely supported by one small bird.
Their latest collection is called the Noah Series, for obvious reasons. Are these pieces of furniture, are they art, or are they both?