鈥淕iuliana鈥 (Colorado 2024), digital c-type photograph mounted on Dibond panel, 60 x 50 cm 漏 Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen
The Marion Art Gallery offers a rare opportunity to view photographs by renowned Norwegian-Finnish collaborators Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen.
The gallery has organized an exhibition of photographs from the duo鈥檚 鈥淓yes as Big as Plates鈥 series, including several never-before-seen 2024 photographs created in Colorado, along with images from Austria, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Senegal, South Korea and Tasmania. There is also a video with a behind-the-scenes look at the duo鈥檚 creative process.
鈥淓yes as Big as Plates鈥 opens to the public on Tuesday, Jan. 28 and is on display through April 13. A reception with hors d鈥檕euvres and beverages takes place on Friday, Jan.31, from 6 to 9 p.m.
In addition, Ikonen will be on campus for a Visiting Artist Program lecture on Friday, March 7 at 4 p.m. in McEwen Hall Room 209 and an informal gallery talk on Saturday, March 8 at 10 a.m. in the Marion Art Gallery.
The exhibition, lecture, gallery talk, and reception are free and open to the public.
The Marion Art Gallery offers a rare opportunity to view photographs by renowned Norwegian-Finnish collaborators Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen.
The Fredonia exhibition is comprised of 26 photographs spanning a 14-year period between 2011 and 2024. The photographs are designed to challenge conventional narratives on how humans relate to their surroundings across diverse cultures and landscapes, and call for a collective and synchronized environmental stewardship.
A complimentary exhibition catalog 鈥 with essays by Dr. Margaret Urban, who is associate professor of Graphic Design at SUNY Fredonia, and Giuliana Furci, field mycologist and fungal activist, founder and CEO of Fungi Foundation 鈥 is available at the gallery. A comprehensive hardcover book titled 鈥淓yes as Big as Plates 2鈥 (published in 2021 by arnoldsche Art Publishers in Stuttgart, Germany) is available for purchase at the gallery.
The Marion Art Gallery is on the main level of Rockefeller Arts Center on the Fredonia campus at 280 Central Ave.
Hjorth and Ikonen photograph their collaborators, often individuals actively involved or impacted by effects of this era of mass extinction 鈥 farmers, surfers, grandmas, citizen scientists, rewinding experts, wild boar hunters, mycologists, philosophers, etc. 鈥 outdoors, camouflaged in organic materials sourced from their surroundings. Each portrait is a dialogue between the collaborator and their living environment, capturing the individual鈥檚 belonging to the so-called 鈥渘ature鈥 and questioning the boundaries between beings.
The labels in the exhibition include a paragraph, written by Hjorth and Ikonen, about each 鈥減rotagonist鈥 in the image.
鈥淚deally the images in the 鈥楨yes as Big as Plates鈥 series lure the viewer in with uncertainties and offer space, space for questions and dialogue: who, when, how, why-on-earth,鈥 Ikonen has stated of the photos.
鈥淓yes as Big as Plates鈥 has become a long-term exploration of relations across beings, with its images exhibited, published, and collected by art institutions worldwide, including the Barbican Centre in London, the Preus Museum (Norway鈥檚 National Museum of Photography) in Horten, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. The first book in the 鈥淓yes as Big as Plates鈥 series (published by Forlaget Press in 2017) was nominated 鈥淏est First Photobook鈥 at the Paris Photo/ Aperture Photobook Awards.
Hjorth was born in Oslo, Norway, and currently resides near Oslo. She holds a bachelor's degree in Photographic Arts and a master's degree in International Journalism, both from the University of Westminster, London. Ikonen was born in Kouvola, Finland. She received her bachelor鈥檚 degree from the University of Brighton and her master鈥檚 degree from Royal College of Art in London. She lives and works in New York City and London.
鈥淓yes as Big as Plates鈥 is supported by the Fredonia College Foundation鈥檚 Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities and Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund, as well as Friends of Rockefeller Arts Center.
Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Thursday, from noon to 4 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m.; Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.; and by appointment. The gallery is closed Mondays and for the campus spring break (March 14 through 23).
For more information about the exhibition or to schedule a free group tour, contact Director Barbara R盲cker at barbara.racker@fredonia.edu or call (716) 673-4897.
