The fact that I could purchase five dining chairs at IKEA tomorrow for less money than I would spend on the raw materials to build a single chair in my shop got me thinking... Living in an age of hyper-cheap big box consumer products, might there be a creative opportunity to adopt these low-cost, watered-down objects as the starting point for unique artistic output and intervention? And in the future, how might the rise of upcycled objects in the art/design marketplace change our notions of what we consider to be a raw material?
The IKEA Raw project aimed to answer these very questions. After selecting what I thought was a pleasant array of ceramic cups, plates, bowls, and serving platters from my local IKEA store, I generated a series of graphic patterns to print onto LaserJet decal paper. Due to the fact that laser printers have high levels of iron in the ink, when the decals are applied to the dishes and they are fired in a kiln, the graphics are permanently transferred into the body of the original glaze.
Year Completed: 2012
Materials: IKEA 365 Dishes, Laser-Jet Printer, Decal Paper, Kiln
Dimensions: Variable
