Riitta Ikonen & Tomas Klassnik: Sparked

From Factories to Flowers: Seedbrush Journeys

Riitta Ikonen and Tomas Klassnik are the first artistic duo to present an exhibition as part of View Tube Art’s Sparked series recognising some of the art commissions which will be found on the Olympic Park for London 2012. With We Made That, Klassnik and Ikonen created Fantasticology, a series of wildflower meadows, which act as a floral celebration of the industrial heritage of the Olympic Site.

Their Sparked exhibition, From Factories to Flowers explores the physical landscape as an organic canvas, looking at biological drawing devices, a giant seedbrush, hidden paths and the UK industrial landscape and heritage.

Two films were made for this project, a short documentary accompanying the exhibition to explain the themes, and a second performance art piece with the artists and their 'seedbrush'.

The exhibition ran from 25 November 2011 - 22 January 2012.

For the performance art piece we spent a misty morning in Greenwich Park, with Tomas and Riitta rolling their giant seedbrush around, whilst contending with noisy street-cleaners, dogs and the police. 

Sparked is a series of exhibitions from View Tube Art, inspired by Art in the Park, the Olympic Delivery Authority programme of public art commissions in the London 2012 Olympic Park. It is supported by Bow Arts and funded by The Legacy List. As well as creating all the films, I also managed the exhibition series alongside curator Rosie Murdoch. Other Sparked exhibitions are with artist in residence for the Olympic Park Neville Gabie and poet Lemn Sissay.