Tulsa’s IKEArt Challenge
We challenged a team of local artists to create a large-scale art installation for Gathering Place, Tulsa’s 100-acre park and USA Today's Best City Park 2024.
The mission, which the artists have chosen to accept:
Must be made of IKEA materials only
Must be weather-resistant (it is Oklahoma, after all!)
Must be completed in time for Tulsmå, our IKEA-themed pop-up restaurant (5-week timeline)
The IKEArt
On display at the Gathering Place outside of Vista at the Boathouse June 13 - 27, 2024
Created using 30+ IKEA MAMMUT children’s table, this art installation doubles as a playful shade pavilion for park goers.
From the artists
“Ikea is known for a great design, and they're also known for their playful, colorful assemblies. We also really like the way that they consider sustainability and ecology.
We framed a concept around the idea of temporary shade structure. We began to look at a variety of products that could exist outside and be weather tolerable. Some of the inspiration is The Gathering Place, which itself is also known for its high-quality design. Those things helped us think about interesting ways of looking for colorful products.
In our case, we're looking at taking an outdoor children's table and connecting it into a system of shade structures.
The biggest challenge? We had to travel regionally to several different IKEA stores to source the products.”
Aaron Jones and Bret Pfeifer make up Pfeifer Jones, an architecture studio in Tulsa, OK. They met while studying at Oklahoma State University two decades ago and have since worked together on creative projects all across the country and state of Oklahoma.