Decor by Design

Walking down the street of King Street West in Toronto’s trendy entertainment district, the art showcase on the street’s corner stands out with an intriguing allure set off by its large glass windows, surrounded by black panels.

IKEA, famous for its modern home decor pieces, has transformed the space for exhibitIKEA, a showcase for the visually stimulating art installations by four of Canada’s leading artists. Sculptor, Bruno Billio, photographer George Whiteside, painter Thrush Holmes, and fashion designer David Dixon have each created their own art installation by transforming IKEA furniture pieces into innovative artwork.

Lifestyler spoke with each of the designers to find out their vision for the project and to learn all about their design process.

Bruno Billio — Stacked Chairs 
With a towering sculpture inside the exhibit, sculptor Bruno Billio creates a dynamic display all with the use of an everyday item — a chair. By stacking the black and white IKEA Reidar chairs, he creates the eye-catching tower that takes his art to new heights.

“I work a lot with furniture, as a medium,” he says. “I was really inspired by the chair and the black and white sequence. It reminds me of a church I saw in Sienna, Italy. I thought I could replicate that. By stacking them so high, I got this great arch in it. It looks very organic. The chair is still in tact; it’s a stack. It’s still a chair but it has also become a sculpture.”

Billio, who has been a fan of IKEA since he was 11 years old, found the collaboration to be a natural process.

“They’re always innovative. They know their market and own their market. They have great trends because they understand people’s lifestyles,” he says. “I’m known for stacking chairs and stacking objects, so those were a great fit from the beginning… It became this particular chair; I found it to be a very obvious choice. The chair directed me as a medium.”

George Whiteside — Living Room with Table-Top Objects
Creating an art installation with a black and white room furnished with white IKEA couches, complemented by a white modern coffee table adorned with table-top vases, and plush grey carpeting, photographer George Whiteside adds a dimensional element to the room with the scattered photographs displayed on both of the room's walls. The photographs, each printed on vintage notebook paper (including some with the handwritten notes left in tact), depict varied images of gathered groups of table-top items such as vases and pots. Each photograph is framed in multi-sized white frames, accenting the room’s modern flair.

“I was looking for vessels and pots, and stuff like that. I started shooting all of these different arrangements, and in the end, I found that it looked a little bit like product shots. I wanted to have another layer to it,” he says. “That's where the notebook thing came up. I found this old notebook, that was probably from the ‘50s or ‘60s or something, that had been distressed by water and age. So, I layered that on and it really just gave it that little bit of a papery feeling.”

Influenced by Italian painter Giorgio Morandi and his work with still life objects, Whiteside says that he found it relatively easy to make his vision work with IKEA’s home decor pieces.

“I think they have a very modern sensibility. It’s different than a lot of what else is going on out there... It’s forward thinking… that’s what I like about it. I like modern and it mixes well with my modern lifestyle, he says. “The way I have stacked things, they are not always the shape that they would necessarily be. I have stacked things so that it changes the perception of them… I like objects that hold things, like vessels. I collect all sorts of them, myself.”

Thrush Holmes — One-Bedroom House
Not only has painter Thrush Holmes created a quirky bedroom from the interior of his art installation, he has also created a uniquely eclectic exterior. The quaint house, which has been created from wood and flat cardboard IKEA boxes, has been plastered with neon colours and graffiti.

“I wanted to speak to the process of buying IKEA, where you leave with these nondescript brown boxes that don’t adequately express the contents. This experience of when you walk through the door, and you experience the interior, which is quite refined; it’s cozy and warm. The exterior is quite empty and abandoned. So it also represents their ability to transform spaces,” he explains.

The eccentricity of the home’s exterior doesn’t stop there. Exploring the interior of the home reveals the cozy alfresco-inspired bedroom. The wooden bed, which is situated on a plush cream-coloured carpet, displays engravings on the headboard and bed frame, and is surrounded by personal belongings, such as the plaid jacket and cap, books on the hanging bookshelf, and is decorated with photographs, and even a deer’s head mounted on the back wall of the room.

“I really wanted to kind of remix their staged rooms, the staged rooms that are found in the showrooms, that have become so iconic. But they haven’t really been personalized… I kind of personalized all of the IKEA items that I used, in a really romanticized way,” he says. “Here is a romantic idealist who kind of dwells in this shack. All of the IKEA items — the bed, there’s some benches, have been treated and have burned into with romantic prose… poetry from books and my own personal poetry.”

“I wanted to create this environment that really looks lived in. You get the sense when you enter that you shouldn't be here. There’s this voyeuristic quality about it,” he adds.

David Dixon — Walk-In Closet and Women's Clothing Collection
As the only designer asked to participate in the exhibit, David Dixon took the challenge to a whole other level. In addition to creating a women’s clothing collection, the fashion designer also designed a luxurious walk-in closet, furnished with modern white leather couches, and white-paneled glass door closets.

“I thought, ‘Next to the bathroom, what’s the most intimate room in the house?’ And it’s your walk-in closet or your closet. That tells you everything about who you are,” he says. “I’m a person who believes that the clothes that you are wearing are a reflection of who you are and what you’re feeling that day.”

Dixon has included inspirational thoughts on each of the closet’s doors, such as “Be Thoughtful,” “Be Beautiful,” and “Be Happy,” to be positive affirmations for women, encouraging them to be proud of who they are.

“These kinds of things to remind ourselves not to be stressed out about the day-to-day stuff, approach the day feeling great about yourself. Take clothing to reflect that, he says.”

The clothing designed by Dixon for the art installation includes a mix of textures and patterns with dresses, skirts, jackets and even, hats. He says he wanted to keep the collection, “fresh, clean and simple.”

With the positive reception that the clothing has already received, Dixon’s IKEA collection is in the works to be auctioned off sometime in the near future.

exhibitIKEA is on display at 363 King Street West for four days, beginning on Thurs., Aug. 18 until Sun., Aug. 21. 
 

Photo Courtesy: IKEA