Pollock, Plato, and New Sheets: The Adventures
of an Art Critic at IKEA, Emily Hall, The
Stranger
In Seattle’s alt-weeklyThe Stranger, Emily Hall
writes an amusing article ruminating on her recent expeditions to
IKEA, the furniture store that offers, ‘affordable solutions for
better living.’ Hall, an art critic, takes a discriminating eye to
the style and import of what she finds in the store. ‘[Y]ou can
find three different leather chairs for the urban sophisticate,
quite specifically targeted for the kind of person you want to be:
Metropolitan (sleek, curvy, and understated), Manhattan (old money,
slightly–perhaps endearingly–stuffy), or Tribeca (trend-bucking,
with–oh my–wooden armrests). Each option is presented with all
the right accoutrements to cement the atmosphere: black-and-white
prints carelessly lined up on a mantel, piles of art books,
cathedral-like clusters of candles–an identity you can buy all at
once, no thinking required.’ The problem, in Hall’s opinion, is
that when you buy a pre-packaged living room set, the art in the
room is marginalized, ignored. Good art, she argues, should not be
ignored.
–Sara V.
Buckwitz
Go there>>
