Unique Contemporary Chaise ‘Inquirim’ by Hugo França in solid Pequi hardwood, Brazil 2013
Hugo França creates sensuous, finely polished pieces of furniture from the scraps of massive pequi trees, which were destroyed during the rampant destruction of Brazil’s rainforests in the 1960s and 1970s. Imagining shapes in fallen trees, Hugo França only works with wood from trees that have fallen from natural causes. The chainsaw usually the nightmare of the forests is used creatively by França as a powerful tool to utilize as much as possible of the tree and to shape the pieces first seen as sculptures and then translated to furniture.
Before crafting furniture, França worked as an Industrial engineer in São Paulo. He abandoned this career in 1981 to live with the indigenous Pataxó people in Bahia, where he connected with the rainforests and learned to sculpt wood. He does not approach his pieces with set goals in mind; instead, he responds to the character of individual scraps of wood. “My process is very intuitive,” França has said. “The main inspiration is each tree—not only because of its beautiful natural form but also because it has a history.”.