During a recent residency in Norway, Riley Robinson was struck by the national enthusiasm for, on the one hand, soccer, and, on the other, the furniture of the Swedish company IKEA. His WindowWorks project addresses the global reach of both the sport and the design firm. In EEK – YA! (at 445 North Main Street), an outsize blue cutout of IKEA’s iconic everyman offers an assembly guide to the four-foot-high particleboard soccer ball on display a few feet away. In Gooooal (at 306 E. Houston Street), Robinson has faced the walls of four storefront bays with Astroturf, creating an abstract playing field with the inscription of white center lines. Furthering the visual dialogue is the attenuated yell of a sports announcer: “Gooooal!” Like EEK – YA!, the piece beautifully elevates the commonplace.
