Ep 28 / Eyes as Big as Plates
Finnish-Norwegian artist duo - Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth - behind the sculpture and photography project join us to discuss their amazing work.
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I first saw the work of Eyes as Big as Plates at the ‘Our Time on Earth’ exhibit at the Barbican in London. As I explain in our latest episode with the duo behind the project, it felt like a hug. Humans enrobed in a sculpture of natural, organic materials so they often look like they are being absorbed back into their natural surroundings.
So when I started to put together a dream guest list for the second season of Ecosystem Member focused on our relationship with nature through artistic work, I knew I had to get the Finnish-Norwegian artist duo - Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth - behind the project on an as guests.
If you haven’t seen their work before, Karoline and Riitta collaborate with a person - they started out focusing on elders but now engage people who have something to say about the climate crisis or are engaged in it in some way - and really a place to create an image. The human is fitted with a wearable sculpture featuring organic materials such as sticks or shells or fungi that match the setting so that the composition integrates the person into a place they have a connection to. They’ve created more than 150 of these images - and released two books of the images - since the project started in 2011. (Check out the below film to see how all of this comes together.)
In the episode, we talk about how the project was initially influenced by Nordic folklore*, working with serendipity as a project manager, how the word ‘nature’ in-and-of-itself can create artificial separations, and a new school program the duo is working on with students in Eastern Finland to create their own Eyes as Big as Plates-style images and display them alongside the duo’s work.
I am a really big fan of Karoline and Riitta’s work and their curiosity about people and the more-than-human world really radiates in our conversation. They consider the project an ‘Adventure Club’ now combining landscape work, sculpture, photography, storytelling, and anthropology as well. It was a real treat to get to chat with them and I hope you enjoy the episode.
On the Eyes as Big as Plates website you can see more of their work and - most importantly - buy your own copy of their book ‘Eyes as Big as Plates 2’, with the proceeds going to create book number three, which will feature works created with mycologists, biologists, soil scientists and opera singers. As you’ll hear in the episode, seeing the final images is great, but getting to read the story along with each piece adds new layers and depth to the image.
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Thanks for listening -
Rick
*If you are keen to understand more about the Nordic folklore we discuss and how people communicate with nature, I highly recommend the film ‘The Seer & The Unseen’. It is a ‘magically real’ documentary about a real-life Icelandic ‘Lorax’. And Andri Snaer Magnason’s book ‘On Time & Water’ is a fantastic read, especially if you are interested in learning more about the Icelandic relationship with nature.
Mentioned in the Episode