Hey folks, welcome to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. We’re now into our second episode of season two exploring our relationship with nature and the more-than-human world through the medium of the arts.

Our guests for this episode is the Norweigan-Finnish duo behind the project ‘Eyes as Big as Plates’.

If you haven’t seen their work before, Karoline and Riitta collaborate with a person - they started out focusing on elders but now engage people who have something to say about the climate crisis or are engaged in it in some way - and really a place to create an image. The human is fitted with a wearable sculpture featuring organic materials such as sticks or shells or fungi that match the setting so that the composition integrates the person into a place they have a connection to. They’ve created more than 150 of these images - and released two books of the images - since the project started in 2011.

In the episode, we talk about how the project was initially influenced by Nordic folklore, working with serendipity as a project manager, how the word ‘nature’ in and of itself can create artificial separations and a new school program the duo is working on with students in Eastern Finland to create their own Eyes as Big as Plates-style images and display them alongside the duo’s work.

I am a really big fan of Karoline and Riitta’s work and their curiosity about people and the more-than-human world really radiates in our conversation. They consider the project an Adventure Club now combining landscape work, sculpture, photography, storytelling and anthropology as well. It was a real treat to get to chat with them and I hope you enjoy the episode.

On the Eyes as Big as Plates website you can see more of their work and - most importantly - buy your own copy of their book ‘Eyes as Big as Plates 2’, with the proceeds going to create book number three, which will feature works created with mycologists, biologists, soil scientists and operate singers. As you’ll hear in the episode, seeing the final images is great, but getting to read the story along with each piece adds new layers and depth to the image.

Links

Eyes as Big as Plates Website
Buy Book 2 from EyesAsBigAsPlates.com

Behind the Scenes of Eyes as Big as Plates

Details for Work Shown:Eyes as Big as Plates # Giuliana (Colorado 2024) Giuliana is the founder of the Fungi Foundation (Chile), a Harvard University associate, National Geographic Explorer, Dame of the Order of the Star of Italy, deputy chair of the IUCN Fungal Conservation Committee and an essayist for upcoming Eyes as Big as Plates exhibitions and book. Giuliana’s portrait is part of a new commission for the ‘Anthropogenic Soils’ project with University of Oslo, created during the Telluride Mushroom Festival Festival, with support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation artist grant as well as the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York. 120 x 100 cm, digital C-type.