Video Sculpture, “Christa” Sex Doll (Pre-Owned), iPad

“Thanks, I Did It Myself” (2024)

2024 Ikea Residency Show

Thanks, I Did It Myself is a collaborative video sculpture by Krista Villatoro and Connor Walden, created during the IKEA Art Residency. The work interrogates IKEA’s ethos of “do it yourself,” posing the question: who is actually able to do it themselves?

At the center of the piece is Christa, a hyperfeminine sex doll, and her video companion Connor, shown assembling an IKEA dresser in his underwear. Through this staged domesticity, the project destabilizes gendered assumptions around labor, care, and sexualization. By flipping the gaze and disrupting conventional power dynamics, Thanks, I Did It Myselfdraws attention to the limits of accessibility, autonomy, and the constructed nature of desire within consumer environments.