EYES AS BIG AS PLATES
EYES AS BIG AS PLATES
CREDITS
Eyes as Big as Plates is an ongoing collaborative venture between photographers Riitta Ikonen (Finland) and Karoline Hjorth (Norway). They met during an artist residency in Norway in 2011, where the first part of the series Eyes as Big as Plates was produced in collaboration with local senior heroes – sailors, retired agronomists and 90-year old parachuters. The series started out as a play on characters and protagonists from Norwegian folklore, featuring elderly subjects enveloped in organic material or swallowed by their natural surroundings. Transformed into mythical creatures, they reflect the return of the body to nature and personify a celebration of lives lived. Part two of the series was shot in Pohjois-Karjala, a region in eastern Finland and the home of Ikonen. The Pohjois-Karjala seniors are presented through references to familiar characters and protagonists of Finnish folklore, infused with the participating local seniors’ own stories and personal relationship to folklore, myths and imagination. Ikonen and Hjorth are currently working on the third chapter of their series: Eyes as Big as Plates continues with a multidisciplinary visual art and performance programme for the senior residents of New York, with its myriad nationalities and personalities.
The resulting works of Eyes as Big as Plates New York are currently on show in Red Hook, NY, until April 26.
Regular updates on the project are published on the Eyes as Big as Plates website.
