Nature Fights Back in "TransPlastic" by the Campana Brothers

Fernando and Humberto, the amazing Campana Brothers, are at it again. We've hugged their work before, and again more recently here, and they've busily expanding their cutting-edge, conceptual work for an exhibition at the Albion Gallery in London. Called "TransPlastic," the collection tells the (fictional) story of a world made of synthetics that's overgrown by natural fibers as an immunological response, like a scab covers a wound. The exhibition, which runs from now until August 10, 2007, encapsulates the brothers' design trajectory, which first took root back in 2000, which considers "material clashes" like plastic and natural fiber. In the pictured piece, plastic chairs have been "overgrown" by a parasitic vine called "apui", whose extraction helps preserve the biodiversity where it grows and eventually suffocates trees. Says Humberto, "When I go to the workshop where part of the TransPlastic collection is being manufactured, I feel passionate with the possibilities of this material. I am discovering an elasticity in this project that is very fulfilling. And to me it has a special meaning because when I left law school, I used to make wicker baskets. It has taken me 20 years to mature this idea and to take back on this material that appealed to me in my first steps as a designer." Learn more at the gallery's site and at the Campanas' brothers site as well. ::Fernando and Humberto Campana and ::Albion Gallery via ::HAUTE*NATURE