Fancy A Daniel Arsham-Designed Clock For $55? Then Check Out Ikea's Artist Collabs
These pieces by acclaimed artists and designers don’t just elevate your home decor, they are incorporated with practical functions, too.
By Michelle Lee,
Contemporary art has often been associated with high-end price tags, but Ikea is set on blurring the lines between art and affordable, functional design with the Ikea Art Event collection.
For the sixth edition of the annual Ikea Art Event, the Swedish furniture brand launched a limited-edition 10-piece line-up designed in collaboration with five different artists and designers: American artist Daniel Arsham, Japanese design studio Gelchop, Sweden-based artist studio Humans since 1982, Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis and Berlin-based artist Stefan Marx,
Transforming art into everyday objects that’ll amp up your space, the collection sees minimalist lighting pieces, a wall clock, a table lamp, a torch, a vase, and wall decorations. The series will drop in the Ikea Tampines and Alexandra stores on April 29 and online from May 6, with in-store purchases limited to two pieces per product.
Ahead, we tell you what you’ll want to snag.
Inspired by everyday life, artist Stefan Marx creates typographical artworks. These draw on conversations he overhears among friends and strangers, as well as lyrics and sentences from his favourite songs and books. On this vase is the familiar wail of “I’m so so so sorrryyyy”.
The phrase “I wait here for your forever as long as it takes” is emblazoned across this throw, originally scribbled in Marx’s notebook after seeing the message graffitied onto a wall in London.
Designed by Daniel Arsham, the design of the timepiece is the expression of the idea of time flying by, together with his interest in architecture in movement.
Japanese art studio Gelchop shines the light on Ikea’s iconic Allen key.
This Allen key also inspired a quirky oversized table lamp design.
The creative duo of Humans Since 1982 often take iconic objects and recognisable signs and symbols out of their usual habitats and place them into new environments.
Case in point: The drone, which is a present-day technological item, now rendered static as though it is a timeless artefact or specimen.
Armed with a minimalist aesthetic, New Zealand-born and Rotterdam-based designer Sabine Marcelis was inspired by Italian painter Lucio Fontana’s slashed canvases. She sought to reimagine this simple gesture – a cut through a surface – through a light fitting, with the final designs emerging through experimentation with folding and cutting paper. They come in two different sizes, each with five different colour choices available.
This article first appeared in the Singapore Women's Weekly