Re(de)sign IKEA

 

 

Genre:            installation
Material:        photography, found objects, drawings  

                        watercolours, graphite, ballpoint pen and Indian ink                 Dimensions:  variable

production:   2012

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​I almost feel ashamed that it’s obvious: nearly everything in

my apartment is from IKEA. I do like IKEA, honestly. But I still try now and then to get something different – ideally from a flea market, occasionally from a design shop, if my budget allows.

When friends casually say things like, "I almost bought that same lamp at IKEA the other day – the bendable one, you know?", I never know how to respond. I have it too. Just not here – it’s in the studio. The idea that our furniture should reflect our uniqueness has become a luxury. A costly one.

I envy people who don’t seem to care about owning the same lamp as millions of others. Maybe they never felt the pressure to be unique – or they’ve already let it go. This tension between individuality and mass production, between subjectivity and a homogenized object world, is at the heart

of this project.

So where does this sense of shame come from? Why the urge to distort, repurpose, and deconstruct IKEA objects until they feel "mine"? The works on display – drawings and photographs – were created in a pop-up studio inside the store itself. They explore identity, rootedness, global consciousness – and ask whether, in a world of mass-produced things, it’s still possible to truly feel at home in ourselves.