Eyes 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.
Eyes as Big as Plates has previously been shown at the Norwegian National Museum (touring exhibition), Salamanca Arts Centre (Hobart, Tamsania), Deedee Shuttuck Gallery, The Chimney NYC, Landskrona Fotofestival (Sweden), Fotogalleriet (Oslo), Pioneer Works (NYC), Shoot Gallery (Oslo), The Museum of Contemporary Arts Kiasma (Helsinki), NADA Miami, Art Toronto, The Nordic House (Reykjavik), The Finnish Institute in Oslo, Paris and Stockholm, Tetley Brewery (Leeds), Seibu Shibuya (Tokyo), Villa Borghese (Rome), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Nebraska US), Bogota International Photo Biennale (Colombia), gallery FACTORY in Seoul Korea, Finlandia University Gallery (Michigan US), The Nordic House (Faroe Islands), The National Museum of Greenland, Galleri F15 / Punkt Ø (Moss, Norway), Ann Lantair Arts Centre (Stornoway), The Barbican Centre (London), Nordic Bridges, Harbourfront Centre (Toronto, Canada), National Arts Centre (Ottawa, Canada), Sector 1 Gallery (Bucharest, Romania), Rennes 2 Gallery (France), Art Centre Silkeborg Bad (Denmark), amongst others. Upcoming shows include Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (Munich, Germany), DiRosa Center for Contemporary Art (California, USA), Musée de la Civilisation (Quebec, Canada), and Rejmyre ArtLab (Sweden).
Email us at eyesasbigasplates@gmail.com and we will put you on our mailing list to keep you posted on all things plate-sized!
All the works are for sale in the following two editions: 120 x 100 cm (edition of 7 + 2 AP) and 60 x 50 cm (edition of 10 + 2 AP). Please get in touch for more information:
Every ten-fifteen years I see something that really impress me in the art World. Now I got two new idols….
Wow! Ingemark -that is fabulous news! We love being your new idols and will strive to keep up to the job!
Thank you!
All our best,
Riitta and Karoline.
Ladies, I connected immediately to your work when I saw it posted on Facebook. I am a Finn-american and totally understand your sense of humor and nature. LOVE that you are working with seniors. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much Paula! We have been told that the series has been going viral on Facebook, and is living its own life online – exciting! And how wonderful that you appreciate our work, thank you so much!
All our best,
Karoline and Riitta.
You may wish to consider bringing your show to the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis! They would love it!
Dear Paula, we would love to visit Minneapolis!
R+K
all I have to say is.. dette er brillefint!! 🙂
mye elsker,
joe fra canada
Kjære Joe fra Canada,
Fantastisk norsk ord – brillefint! Hjertelig takk!
K+R
So sensitive and kind! Thank you!
Dear Aija, thank you very much!
All our best,
Riitta and Karoline.
wonderful work — rich and resonant without taking itself too seriously. well done!
Thank you very much Noni!
R+K
I LOVE these. Are there chances to buy prints..etc?
Dear Bea (?), we are very happy to hear that you like our project! All the images in the series are for sale in two different sizes, 120 x 100 cm and 60 x 50 cm. Feel free to get in touch with us if you are interested: karoline.hjorth@gmail.com
All our best,
Riitta and Karoline.
Hi, I’m gonna go ahead and second Aisling, above. Your work is awesome.
Dear Raluca, we are happy you like it! Thank you very much!
K+R
Fantasticl photos of nature transforming beautifully. Thank you for creating n sharing your art. Happy Spring, y’all!
Dear Eileen,
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback and we wish you a wonderful spring too!
Such a rich palate in an older face- love it
Thank you so much!
How can we buy prints?
Your photographs are good for heart and soul, and are so beautiful ! Montreal would love to receive your exhibition 😉
Same question as Julieann: how can we buy prints ?
Thank you very much! We would love to come to Montreal once too! I have sent you and Julieann an email regarding the prints.
All the best,
Karoline + Riitta
Your work is great! I really like your images. They are so engaging. You must be familiar with the work of Sacha Goldberger and his grandmother, Mamika? His work is so very different than yours, and yet, there is some kind of connection. I am so pleased to see your work. Thanks!
Dear Dunkan, Sorry for our late response, but thank you very much for your lovely feedback! & Sacha Goldberger’s Mamika series is GREAT!
Is there a book for sale or a place we can view the images that are for sale?
(prices?)
Dear Rosemary, thank you very much for your request, and sorry for our tardy response. If you would like to send us an email (either to karoline.hjorth@gmail.com or mail@riittaikonen.com), we would be happy to send you a list of works and prices. We are in the planning and funding stages of an upcoming publication too, and hope to get it into production in 2014, fingers crossed!
All our best,
Riitta and Karoline.
A blogger described the show she saw in Finland as “Old Finnish People with Things on Their Heads” and beautiful images from your first show are now circulating on Facebook, imagur and elsewhere under that title with *no links.* I was so appalled at her remarks I went looking. Thank you for this work, sorry bout the cretins.
Thank you for hunting us down, I’m glad you found us. The internet is indeed a wild place when it comes to crediting!
Hello Karoline og Riita:
Fantastisk!!!Eg er en etablerte Kanadisk folkemusikker og forteller/poet/dokketeater “performance artist” med Skaninaviske (storst sett Norsk) tradisjon some utgangspunktet. Eg odde i Norge noen ar som voksne. Nu for tiden er eg “folk-artist-in-residence” at a local museum. I am giving a performance and slideshow this week-end, featuring some images of my inspiration, including my time with the Sami and working on Norwegian farms. I am hoping to use your images in the slidewshow including the cover page with your names etc and some quotes from Riita’s website, if this is ok.
Takk,
Sarah Granskou
Canadian-Norwegian Scald
Dear Sarah,
Thank you for your lovely message and we are ever so sorry for this incredibly late reply! We haven’t seen this message until now, but we hope your performance went great! Fun to hear about your background too!
Warmest greetings from Riitta and Karoline.
Writing from West Virginia, USA. Also saw your photos on Facebook. What a gift you have. Thank you for bringing joy to my day! Must bring your exhibit to Washington D.C.
Hello West Virginia, thank you for the message.
We would gladly come to exhibit in Washington D.C.!
Fantastic, original pictures ! I would like to have an interview with both of you for an article of université de Montreal student in journalism magazine, Le reporter. I hope to talk to you next week. You should come to Montreal.
URGENT: We have been trying to contact you in order to make a partnership for the EEAGRANTS fund in a social and cultural project in Portugal. We tried to call you and sent email through “info@academiacidada.org”. Hope to hear from you soon.
João
Dear João and the Citizenship Academy,
We are very sorry we did not respond to your request early enough, but in the end we pulled out from the EEAGRANTS projects due to time limitations. We do hope you found some great collaborators to work with and wish you all the best with the project!
Best regards,
Riitta and Karoline.
Hi Riitta and Karoline!
Your work is amazing! Are there any possibilities to buy some prints?
My very best,
Isabel
Dear Isabel, thank you very much for your email and sorry for our late reply! All the works from Eyes as Big as Plates are for sale in the size of 50 x 60 cm (edition of 10 + 2 artist proofs) and 100 x 120 cm (edition of 7 + 2 artist proofs). You are very welcome to send us an email for more details: karoline.hjorth@gmail.com or mail@riittaikonen.com.
Warmest greetings from Riitta and Karoline.
I hope you get to show this beautiful work in Australia – or I’ll just buy a plane ticket and visit you!
Such lovely work – thank you!
Wendy
Thank you very much Wendy! We would very much love to come to Australia to photograph and to show the work, that would be fantastic!
Very best,
Riitta and Karoline
Love your work! Do you have a website, fb page to connect with!
Hi Svenska, thank you for your lovely feedback and we are happy to let you know we now have a Facebook page to share with you: https://www.facebook.com/eyesasbigasplates We have also got a Kickstarter campaign to share, perhaps you might be interested in getting a book? Or spreading the word out? We are forever grateful for any help! Here is the link with all the info: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eyesasbigasplates/eyes-as-big-as-plates?ref=nav_search
Many thanks and warmest greetings from Oslo and New York,
Karoline and Riitta.
I love Nature and love what you have done and what you are doing. Keep it up 🙂
Dear Jean,
Thank you for your lovely message! We are trying to do a book of the series these days and have just launched a Kickstarter campaign where we are trying to raise funds to print an international book publication of the complete works to date. Perhaps this would be something of your interest? We would highly appreciate your support, and we would be very grateful if you would help us spread the word to friends or contacts you think might want an Eyes as Big as Plates book!
Our best regards from Oslo and New York,
Karoline and Riitta.
Here is the link with all the information:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eyesasbigasplates/eyes-as-big-as-plates
Many grateful bows and warmest greetings to you from Oslo and New York,
Karoline & Riitta.
Thank you most heartily for your project and sharing it. It inspires at so many levels. Making art in all it’s forms has been my fellow traveler forever it seems and your gift is beyond measure. jT
Hi there! I love your work and I pre-bought a copy of the second book. Do you have a status update on it? I haven’t heard if it shipped out already. Thank you!!
Hi Tara! Thank you so much for pre-buying our upcoming book, we can’t wait to send it your way! We are so very near now – waiting to go to print in Sweden right now (final layout steps and proofreading left)! After that comes binding the book in Germany, before shipping it around the world – we will definitely keep everyone posted as soon as we have fixed dates! We are happy to put you on our mailing list (please send us your email), or you are free to follow the updates here on our website too.
Thanks again and best wishes from us both,
Karoline and Riitta