Karoline Hjorth og Riitta Ikonen
EYES AS BIG AS PLATES av den norsk-finske kunstnerduoen Karoline Hjorth (f. 1980, Oslo) og Riitta Ikonen (f. 1981, Kouvola) tematiserer menneskets forhold til sine omgivelser gjennom fotografi, skulpturelle kostymer og tekst.
Det som startet som en undersøkelse av skandinavisk naturforståelse, personifiseringer av naturen og folkloristiske forklaringer på naturfenomener, har i løpet av et drøyt tiår utviklet seg til en global undersøkelse av menneskets tilhørighet i naturen. I sitt trettende produksjonsår teller serien nærmere 140 portretter av folk, flora, fauna og funga over fem kontinenter.
© Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen, fra serien Eyes as Big as Plates, 2022. Preus museums samling.
Vis utvidet bildetekstEyes as Big as Plates is the ongoing collaborative project between the Finnish-Norwegian artist duo Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth. Starting out as a play on characters from Nordic folklore, Eyes as Big as Plates has evolved into a continual search for modern human’s belonging to nature.
The series is produced in collaboration with retired farmers, fishermen, zoologists, plumbers, opera singers, housewives, artists, academics and ninety year old parachutists. Since 2011 the artist duo has portrayed seniors in Norway, Finland, France, US, UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, South Korea, Czech Republic, Japan, Senegal, Outer Hebrides, Tasmania and Greenland.
Each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings that indicate neither time nor place. Here nature acts as both content and context: characters literally inhabit the landscape wearing sculptures they create in collaboration with the artists.
As active participants in our contemporary society, these seniors encourage the rediscovery of a demographic group too often labelled as marginalized or even as a stereotypical cliché. It is in this light that the project aims to generate new perspectives on who we are and where we belong.