Designer of Ikea's bisexual flag-themed couch that sparked criticism said he took words meant to 'invalidate' him and made them 'something beautiful'

• Ikea Canada released 10 love seats designed by LGBTQ+ people and inspired by Pride flags.
• One couch by artist Brian Lanigan and designer Charlotte Cardone faced some Twitter criticism.
• Lanigan told Insider that he turned words that were used to hurt him into something beautiful.

Ikea Canada debuted 10 love seats inspired by Pride flags and LGBTQ+ stories to honor Pride Month. The furniture retailer released the collection, called "Love Seats," on June 24.

The love seats are not for sale but will be on display in select Ikea Canada stores, according to the brand's website. Each love seat captures stories of LGBTQ+ people and was created by furniture designers Bianca Daniela Nachtman, Madison Van Rijn, Charlotte Carbone, and Ali Haider.

Since Ikea Canada announced the collection, Twitter users expressed mixed reactions - particularly on a sofa inspired by the bisexual flag, designed by Carbone in collaboration with Canadian artist Brian Lanigan.

People expressed confusion around the text on the couch that reads, "When you change 'or' to 'and,' nobody believes you."

In an interview with Insider, Lanigan said it's a line from a poem he wrote that reclaims words that were used to hurt him.

"I think that taking these words that were used to hurt and invalidate me as a queer person, and turning them into something beautiful is celebratory in its own way," Lanigan told Insider.

The pink, purple, and blue sofa is covered with hand-shaped appliques with the line from the spoken-word poem he wrote in high school.

One user tweeted that the couch looked like a "horror movie" prop. Others said they felt it wasn't celebratory enough for the collection.

Twitter user @CorylusCreative wrote: "As a bisexual woman, I appreciate the emotional place this came from and it does resonate with me. However, in a collection about being proud, where the other identities get to celebrate their best selves, it feels crummy that ours just focuses on the worst part of being bi."

Lanigan responded to criticism of the couch in a Twitter thread on Tuesday, writing that the words come from his poem that, as stated on Ikea's website, "speaks to an experience with his previous partner who did not accept his bisexual identity."

Lanigan told Insider that the poem captures his feelings about experiencing bisexual erasure, which is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, re-explain, or question bisexuality.

"The inspiration for the couch is my own experiences with bi-erasure and the intense amount of support I would receive from poetry audiences (hence the hands) after performing the poem," he told Insider via Twitter.

On Twitter, other users responded to Lanigan's sofa by sharing their own experiences.

User @CutieStraw tweeted: "The 'nobody believes you' hits the nail on the head for me. I've told my mom I'm bisexual for years and she still doesn't believe me. 'You'll grow out of it. It's a phase.' I'm 30."

In a statement to Insider, Claudia Mayne, director of marketing communications for Ikea Canada, said: "We've received tremendous response to the collection of custom Love Seats to date and appreciate the dialogue and discussion each has created as a platform for sharing stories from across the 2SLGBTQ+ community," using the expanded acronym 2SLGBTQ+, which includes people who identify as two-spirit, an Indigenous North American term for those identifying as both male and female spirits.

Mayne added that Ikea Canada "wanted to do something that highlighted the diversity within the 2SLGBTQ+ community to provide more space for identities who may not receive the same level of attention during Pride, especially during COVID-19."