EYES AS BIG AS PLATES

Fotogalleriet is pleased to present the exhibition Eyes as Big as Plates, a first-time comprehensive presentation of the on-going collaborative project by Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen.

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. Inspired by the Romantics’ celebration of imagination, each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings that indicate neither time nor place. The scenes take into account qualities of timelessness and universality, yet suggest an additional narrative by revealing traces of the characters’ individuality and signs of contemporary living.

The natural world acts as both content and context in this work, with the characters literally inhabiting the landscape. The production of each image further involves a certain collision of temporality: the fleeting instant of the photographic moment, the more ‘mythic’ time created within the image and the participants’ mental transition as they become one with their wearable sculpture and the surrounding natural landscape.

Eyes as Big as Plates is produced in collaboration with retired farmers, fishermen, zoologists, plumbers, opera singers, housewives, artists, academics and ninety-year old parachutists. 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.

For more information: www.eyesasbigasplates.com

Karoline Hjorth (born 1980, lives in Oslo) graduated with an MA in International Journalism and BA in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster, London (2009 & 2007). Riitta Ikonen (born 1981, lives in Finland and New York) graduated with an MA in Communication Art and Design, Royal College of Art, London in 2008 and a BA in Illustration from the University of Brighton in 2005. Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen have been collaborating since 2011, following their meeting at an artist residency in Sandnes, Norway. Fotogalleriet shows works from all the Eyes as Big as Plates journeys to date: Norway, Finland, the United States, France, Iceland and Faroe Islands.

The series has so far been exhibited at: Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NYC (2013), Trøndelagsutstillingen, Trondheim (2013), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (2012), The Finnish Norwegian Cultural Institute, Oslo (2012), Shibuya, Tokyo (2012) and KINO KINO, Sandnes (2011). Upcoming shows in 2014 include The Ars Fennica exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, a touring exhibition with the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Norway, Galleri Sult, Stavanger, Institute Finlandaise, Paris, Nordic House, Faroe Islands, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds and Kunstmuseet Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos. The series has been covered widely in the press, including TIME magazine, Huffington Post, Artlink Australia, Life Magazine (Hong Kong), Quotation (Japan), Conveyor Art magazine, SVA Magazine (NO), Fanfare (NO), NRK Nasjonalgalleriet, amongst others. A book publication is also underway.