Eyes as Big as Plates, Scotty (Tasmania 2019). Photo by Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen.
Eyes as Big as Plates
Toronto, Ontario
Presented by
Harbourfront Centre
An ongoing photography series that began in 2011 to study personifications in nature and folkloric explanations of natural phenomena.
A decade later, the series has evolved into a continual search for modern human belonging in nature, taking the Norwegian-Finnish artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen to sixteen countries on a quest to understand our relationship with our surroundings. As part of Hjorth and Ikonen’s participation in Nordic Bridges, the duo will collaborate with the Miꞌkmaq community in Nova Scotia to create a series of new works that will be presented as part of their exhibition at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
The exhibition is a selection of recent photographs by the duo Riita Ikonen (Finland) and Karoline Hjorth (Norway) presented in a non-traditional gallery space: the 245 Queens Quay West warehouse. The second component is three large-scale billboards at Harbourfront Centre’s 235 Queens Quay West parking pavilion that will be the product of their fieldwork in Nova Scotia in mid-September 2022.
The series collaborates with retired farmers, fishermen, zoologists, plumbers, opera singers, homemakers, artists, academics and ninety-year-old parachutists. Since 2011, the artist duo has portrayed seniors in Norway, Finland, France, the US, the UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Japan, Senegal, and the Outer Hebrides, Tasmania and Greenland.
Riitta Ikonen is a Finnish artist whose collaborative work reinforces humanity’s connection to the natural world. Ikonen received her BA from the University of Brighton and her MA from Royal College of Art in London. She lives and works in New York City and London.
Karoline Hjorth (b. 1980) is a Norwegian photographer, artist and writer. She completed her BA Photographic Arts and MA International Journalism at the University of Westminster (London) in 2009. Her photographic work has received the Deloitte Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London and has been exhibited and published internationally.
Riitta Ikonen & Karoline Hjorth have collaborated since 2011 on publications and projects including Eyes as Big as Plates (ongoing), The World in London (2012), Time is a ship that never casts anchor (2014–18), Signal, Lights, Connected for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics (2018), TEDMED Talk 2020, and Finnskogen Understories (ongoing). Finnish artist Riitta Ikonen received her MA from the Royal College of Art in 2008. Norwegian photographer, artist and writer Karoline Hjorth received her MA from the University of Westminster (London) in 2009.
