Saturday 29 August 2009

Sat 29th Aug: Profile Weekender : Ritta Ikonen







Here is a little introduction for anyone possibly not familiar with the work of Ritta Ikonen..........if you aren't = sit up and pay attention.......RITTA RULES!
I have to ashamedly confess that I wasn't aware of her work and therefore extremely grateful to have been invited to the very 1st ItsNiceThat talk which was focused on Ritta (watch it at the link below). Both her work and her character are in equal measure charming, trailblazing, enchanting, ridiculous, intuitive, whimsical and real. Her natural demeanour is just hilarious and if you stick with me this weekend I'll let you in on some of her many, many obsessions and projects............thanks to Ritta for compiling an incredible batch of behind the scene snaps for a glimpse into her world..........

Ritta is originally from Finland but cultivated itchy feet for travel from a childhood with time spent living in Greece and France...........more recently Japan and London..........and most recently New York. I contacted Ritta for an update on what she has been up to over the last few months whilst on her transatlantic adventure. Her work regularly takes her to bizarre destinations (Neel - this wreeeeks of you!) for example dressing as an iceberg in the Baltic or Snowflake in Moscow..........
these are projects where Ritta has created costumes to convey a certain concept .........this is certainly a definitive Ikonen tool but by her own admission she is not a one trick pony and experiments with other mediums...............which I will be able to show with each post.........
But to get things started here are some shots of her body of work with costumes.........the classic Nylon project which found her dressed as a car seat is one of my favourites...........the other was a toothbrush which you really should check out at her site.........


http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/441-talk-1-riitta-ikonen
http://www.riittaikonen.com

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