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Adam Nathaniel Furman designs hyper-vibrant furniture installation for Milan Design Week 2017

4 Characters in the First Act

Adam Nathaniel Furman designs hyper-vibrant furniture installation for Milan Design Week 2017

London-based Adam Nathaniel Furman once described a project of his as “eye gougingly colorful.” The work in question was a conceptual reaction to the monolithic concrete Corviale housing scheme in Rome. A designer, critic, and champion of postmodernism, Furman has now designed four equally colorful works with an Italian inflection. This time, however, no eye gouging is necessary.

Furman was commissioned by Camp Design Gallery for the Milan Design Week/Fuori Salone 2017 to create this new installation, titled 4 Characters in the First Act and curated by Marco Sammicheli. It comprises furniture described by Furman as “bursting with personality.” The four pieces are all named. Introducing: Angiolo (aside unit); Anselmo (a table); Annibale (a cupboard with legs); and Augusto (a triangle cupboard).

Drawing inspiration from Italy, and what Furman describes as “its incredible ability to always mix, and synthesize, influences from all around the world,” the highly decorative pieces draw from Korean, Balian, Thai, and Chinese imagery. Furman continued, noting how the styles he draws upon have been “updated with a bright, glowing, and joyful 21st century aesthetic.”

The four A’s (Angiolo, Anselmo, Annibale, and Augusto) have been made with traditional Italian craft, using hand-made Lombard timber carpentry and painted steel.

“Imagine a Thai business lady, and an Italian backpacker, spending a long, exciting, passion and drug-fuelled night together in a Chinese club,” said Furman. “Well these pieces are the embodiment of this kind of wonderful, sensual and aesthetic trans-continental exchange.”

“In an age of increasing isolationism and gloom, this is a collection that picks up on Marco Polo’s legacy, and is the celebratory, colorful expression of a desire to travel, and to meet and make exciting, strange new things,” he added.

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