I saw their 'Favela Chair' (1991-2002) In Manchester Art Gallery last week, and so was pleased to see their work is currently featured in this summers edition of V&A magazine, which led to my own greater understanding and appreciation of their playful creations. Neither of the Brazilian brothers intended to become designers, yet "taking inspiration from Brazil's cultural cauldron, they transform mundance objects such as garden hose and rope into opulent designs". The Favela chair, named after the Brazilian word for 'shanty town', is constructed using hundreds of small timber offcuts (resemblent of scrappy firewood), conveying aesthetic qualities resemblent of a squatters hut. "The notion of manicured ladies who lunch perching on chairs inspired by shanty town shacks sounds like a satirist's dream".
The 'Prived Oca chandelier' (2003) was designed for the Austrian crystal company 'Swarovski', it is made using crystals and fibre optic lights, draped with a 'wig' of banana skins, creating a couragous juxtaposition between the precious luxury associated with Swarovski crystal, and the everyday somewhat menacing mass of dead fruit remains.
I am amused by Humberto and Fernando Campana's wacky ideas, they provide a far cry for attention amidst the furniture worlds taste for refined minimalism and love of IKEA.
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