To mark the 30th birthday of the iconic KLIPPAN sofa, one of IKEA’s most recognisable and affordable items, 30 artists have created a one-off KLIPPAN cover in their own style, focusing on the theme of “home”.
Click the Artists’ names (sidebar) to see their personal KLIPPAN cover, or simply browse through the blog’s pages.
Contributing artists, Mini Graff, Catherine Martin, Jasper Knight and Pete Volich talk about the inspiration behind their designs and the materials they used to create their KLIPPAN cover.
Home Is The Most Important Place In The World
In early 2009, bushfires swept across Victoria devastating 78 communities and 400,000 hectares of land. A total of 173 people lost their lives. The fires resulted in 2029 homes being destroyed.
Home should be a place where people feel secure and safe from harm. In the face of such devastation it is difficult to imagine the enormity of the loss felt by many around the country.
Like many Australian businesses and individuals, IKEA Australia East (AUE) wanted to help support the largest recovery and rebuilding project Victoria has ever faced. To assist with this mammoth task, IKEA AUE provided a $1 million donation of product to affected areas.
In the months following the fires, IKEA AUE has worked closely with the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA) to support families trying to rebuild their homes.
As well as providing thousands of vouchers, IKEA AUE has worked closely with VBRRA to install kitchen and dining facilities in temporary housing centres in Marysville, Kinglake and Flowerdale.
Australians have a proud reputation for generosity and it is important that we rally together to support the families and communities affected by this disaster. Whilst the fires have ceased, the process of rebuilding homes will continue for many months – possibly years – to come.
The IKEA Home Project is dedicated to all Victorians who are still rebuilding their homes. All money raised from the auction of the KLIPPAN sofas will be given as a cash donation to affected families via the Red Cross. Show your support by bidding on one of these unique works of art at www.graysonline.com
Ron Adams, This is it, it is This 2009
Gesso & acrylic paint on KLIPPAN
In This is it, it is This Ron Adams presents a graphic and poetic composition of colour and text. His work considers the complex and abstract nature of emotions and thoughts; these human processes are not easily visualised and we must often look closely to decipher the messages presented to us. Ron’s work is autobiographical, primarily text-based Geometric Abstraction with an aesthetic that resembles Concrete Minimalism, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus and De still. He is further influenced by psychology, philosophy, architecture, music and design.
Baed in Sydney, Ron has exhibited widely, including at Blacktown Arts Centre, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Kaliman Gallery, Sherman Galleries, James Dorahy Project Space and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Internationally his work has been shown at Raid Projects, LA, Heble 121, Basil and The Armory Show, New York. He founded the artist-run initiative MOP Projects in 2003, with George Adams, where they curate a vibrant program of exhibitions.
Cash Brown, Recliners 2009
Transfers and acrylic on KLIPPAN
Cash Brown has always made art… in some form of another. Whether it is printmaking, painting, installation, sculptural objects or drawing, she has maintained a constant devotion to aesthetics. Most importantly, Brown has never lost her sense of play. Formally trained in academic painting at the National Art School, Brown has an almost obsessive preoccupation with the history of western painting and its socio political baggage. This provides a departure point for her conceptual repertoire of visual and linguistic “gags”.
- Excerpt from ‘Appropriate’ catalogue essay by Adam Cullen 2008.
Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Break and Enter 2009
Crayon coin rubbings and transfers on KLIPPAN
Daniel Mudie Cunningham embarked on this project while his brother Christopher Mudie was remanded, far from home, at Parklea Prison in NSW. Daniel’s design responds to a childhood memory of the brothers fossicking through the family couch for coins that would fall from their dad’s pockets. Along with their brothers Sean and Trevor, they would race each other to seize the treasures hidden in the couch. One day Christopher had a brilliant plan. No more than ten years old, he grabbed a kitchen knife and slashed a tear on both sides of the couch. His strategy for easy access paid off – he made at least $2 that evening. He also got smacked with the wooden spoon. The coin rubbings on Daniel’s couch reference this family memory, his brother’s time in prison, as well as the couch change a KILPPAN might yield.
Daniel Mudie Cunningham (born Melbourne,1975) is a Sydney based artist, curator and writer.
Catherine Martin
Catherine Martin has had a very interesting relationship with the concept of home. A ‘gypsy’ for most of her adult life, after having two children she started to develop a need for a ‘home’ as a centre for her life. Her couch has been covered in hemp fabric, a green fiber and an extremely strong one; it will survive just about anything.
Catherine loves the combination of casual luxury that at the same time is practical. The cover can be taken off her couch and thrown in the washing machine… things should be both functional and beautiful. Catherine hopes that this take on the KLIPPAN will have a strong, quiet elegance in it’s new home.
Two-time Academy Award winner Catherine Martin is globally renowned for her production and costume design. Her unique approach to design is featured in Baz Luhrmann’s films Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom and Romeo+Juliet, as well as operas such as Luhrmann’s La Boheme on Broadway, for which she won a Tony Award.
Kate Rohde
Kate Rohde was born in 1980 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts with Honours in 2001. A Melbourne based sculptor and installation artist, she creates opulent investigations into faux-taxidermy and Rococo styled vitrines. Inspired by the human inclination to control and document nature, Rohde’s exhibits look to the manicured gardens of Versailles, museum dioramas and nineteenth century style exoticism. She has held solo exhibitions at galleries and institutions since 2000, including Flourish at Tarrawarra Museum, Victoria (2008) and Some Kind of Empire, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2006). Her work features in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria and Newcastle Regional Art Gallery.
Reko Rennie, Gwaybilla
Reko Rennie-Gwaybilla is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi man, born in Melbourne in 1974. As a teenager, Reko discovered graffiti, and with no formal training in art, he soon began his artistic apprenticeship on the streets of Melbourne. Reko’s choice of medium is a can of spray-paint, a cutting knife, laminated paper and any wall or blank surface. Reko’s art and installations are known for their vibrant colours, line work and intricate stencil imagery.
Through his stencil art, Reko focuses on what it means to be an urban Aboriginal man in contemporary society. NGV Indigenous curator, Stephen Gilchrist highly commended Reko’s work for his ‘uncompromising politics and technical virtuosity’. Reko uses traditional flora and fauna imagery that represent his community.
Through Reko’s art and installations he continually explores issues of identity, race, law and justice, health, education, land rights, stolen generations and other issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in contemporary society today.
Naomi Troski, Sprouting Easy 2009
Plastic and sisal rope
Sprouting Easy brings together contrasting, accessible industrial materials. The grid of bright orange plastic netting has become the supporting weft to the interwoven sisal rope and it is through the binding, tying, cutting and knotting of these materials that the form of the sofa has been activated.
