"It was our duty to expand. Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied. It is always the mediocre people who are negative, who spend their time proving that they were not wrong." - Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of Ikea.

 

This vast enterprise of home design and the commodification of every need is often disquieting to us. Capitalism appropriates everything. It has a great appetite and yet, is it all bad? I really like Ikea, but maybe I’m wrong. I made this work to see if I could free myself from this deadlock about Ikea.

 

Many people associate Sweden with a fresh, healthy way of life. The sensation of summer sunshine indoors all year round. Clean Nordic design rooms full of light and fresh air, yet restrained and unpretentious is the hallmark . All delivered at low prices. I like the dream of mass design for all, the cafeteria, and the anonymity one feels walking through the warehouse.

 

I’ve appropriated text from the Ikea catalogue, its comforting welcoming tone – of “something for your every need” publicity tone of Ikea. I have added corporate disclaimers and from the corporate website – both absurd and comforting phrases and interwove this amalgam of ideas and images and text - sometime contradicting its initial intent and sometimes reinforcing and at times   creating something entirely new emerging from the collision of my original and the source materials.