After entering Ikea for nearly the 10th time I felt like I had finally had enough, I had seen all I could see and my time there started to feel like I was lost it in a  never ending maze filled with falsities. Our investigations felt like more like goose chases, where instead of trying to explore the place, we solely searched to make connection that weren’t there. I was starting to hate Ikea.

It was until finding this peer reviewed poem that our passion for this project was reignited and we started truly exploring the space. Kate Peper’s poem which portrays a modern day take on a quote from the book of Ephesians was the spark that we needed to start approaching the space with more open minds.

“Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead…”

The most influential element of this poem was it’s satirical tone and message. From the moment I read it I found strong connection to this piece, as I believed that the poem had seamlessly made the connection between Ikea and Religion, a connection that up to that moment had been eluding Tess and I. Kate Peper was able to effectively make the connection between the comparative experiences in such a fun and smart way and Tess and I knew we had to try and do the same.

Finding this poem really changed the direction of the outcome, as we stopped being so literal in our exploration and instead decided to use satirical and other alternative approaches to explore the site. Both Tess and I really wanted to strip back the experience that we had started ‘over experiencing’ and try to expose it for what it truly is.

This poem truly incapsulated the tone and angle that Tess and I took into this project and finding it was the spark we needed to achieve the outcome that we are both very happy with.