Sandy Skoglund Cats C. 1980 image area 25 1/2" X 33" In an interview, Sandy Skoglund discussed that she was mainly focused on the cats when working on this piece, stating that she

Sandy SkoglundPhoto Surrealist

Presentation by: Lena Thach, Taylor Rocha, Laine Stewart, and Mady Streeter

Artist Biography● Sandy Skoglund was born on September 11, 1946 in

Quincy, Massachusetts● Studied art history and studio art at Smith College,

graduated in 1968● In 1969 she went to graduate school at the University of

Iowa, studied filmmaking, multimedia art and printing. Earned her Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts in painting.

● After receiving her M.A. and M.F.A., Skoglund moved to New York City in 1972 and worked as a conceptual artist, this influenced her to teach herself photography in the late seventies in order to express conceptual ideas.

Conceptual Art● Her pieces from 1978 showed her photo process of repetition as she

documented still life images of food against colorful patterns. ● In conceptual art, a movement that started in the early 1960s, the idea

behind the piece is more important than the aesthetics of the finished product. The meaning is decided before the art-making process.

● Skoglund’s idea was to create a universal language. She chose food because everyone eats and she wanted to connect with her viewers.

● Influenced by 70s consumerism culture, Skoglund wanted to convey manipulation by the processed food industry and the role photography plays into commercialization. “...the truth of the food is sacrificed for the appearance to the camera, resulting in shiny oily coating to make something look juicy, and drops of dimethicone to imitate the sweat on a cold glass of freshly poured beer.”

● As the processed food industry grew, more manipulation by humans was required to give the illusion that products for consumption were fresh and natural. She conveyed this irony through her process of creating perfect displays that would take several months to finish to make the product look desirable.

Sandy Skoglund, Peas on a Plate, 1978

Sandy Skoglund, Luncheon Meat on a Counter, 1978

Photo Surrealism● Unlike Skoglund’s early conceptual pieces, where her pieces convey one central idea, her surrealist photos allow

room for imagination.● Surrealists did not focus on reasoning like conceptual artists, they felt like conscious thought blocked imagination.

They relied on the creativity of their unconsciousness and combining different realities. Artists from the surrealist movement displayed these ideals in different ways like through the use of irrational juxtapositions and different techniques to unlock their unconsciousness.

● In Sandy Skoglund’s surrealists photos she displays these ideals by combining natural and artificial, reality and imagination. She says that, “I see myself naturally attracted to some very artificial things, almost as if my life depended on it. If I try to talk myself out of being attracted to these things, but then I am lying to myself and full of miserable conflict.” This quote illustrates how she was inspired by unconscious attractions to represent her true self.

● Skoglund displays animals in a lot of her works to represent how we fit in with the natural world. There are other forms of consciousness throughout all living creatures on this earth, no being sees reality in the same way. Skoglund shows her questioning of human consciousness in her art explaining that, “in my work, I am trying to show reality as it actually is, as a rupture through the fabric of our human consciousness.” Her idea is that reality is chaos that we cannot perceive and “... has been made presentable by the limitations of human perception.” This goes back to ideals of surrealism that consciousness blocks imagination.

Radioactive CatsC. 1980

image area 25 1/2" X 33"

In an interview, Sandy Skoglund discussed

that she was mainly focused on the cats when

working on this piece, stating that she

sculpted the cats all by herself over many

months.

Like many of her art pieces, this piece

features live models with the props.

“As a conceptual artist involved with repetitive

processes, when does it really end? So the

photograph became a reason to end the

repetition.” - Sandy Skoglund

Fox GamesC. 1989

image area 46 1/4" X 63"

In total, there are 23 sculpted foxes placed in an ordinary restaurant environment. Similar to Radioactive Cats, The bland, washed out color of the restaurant is juxtaposed by the bright red color of the foxes.

“I use familiar spaces… and elements like furniture to take viewers out of the museum and place them in… a place that feels familiar to them. Then I interfere with that reality by changing the elements, changing them in terms of materials,”

-Sandy Skoglund

Laws of Interior DesignC. 2004

image area: 14"H x 25L"

Much of Sandy Skoguls artwork from True Fiction Two features images of everyday scenes. However the images are created using archival pigmented inkjet technology.

Unlike her other works, these images have been digitally manipulated “to assimilate the visual and photographic possibilities now available in digital processes.”

“The result is a similar, yet significantly different feel to the sense of spaceand three-dimensional photographic quality represented by each image. In each print, colors have been refined, contrast altered, and detail enriched.” - Sandy Skoglund

Revenge of the Goldfish C. 1981

H: approx. 27 ½ in. (70 cm.), W: approx. 35 in. (89 cm.)

Her installations must be low tech, doable and easy. Imagination is for the society to be liberated, daydreams and small visions are important. The green/blue room gives the sense that the whole thing is supposed to be a fish tank filled with 120 goldfish. The dullness of the room makes the fish pop, drawing attention to how irrational it is. The goldfish were sculpted in terracotta adding something vaguely threatening.

“I think the art that depicts the life of the imagination is offering up to everyone the possibility of having eternal life.”

-Sandy Skoglund

Breathing GlassC. 2000

H: 38" x 52"

This work is Skoglund’s first piece using glass. Glass dragonflies flutter over miniature marshmallows with a blue background. The installation and the photograph suggest that the truth may be as exclusive as creativity.

"Truthfulness is problematic in everything, and the camera is no more guilty of being untruthful than anything else."

-Sandy Skoglund

Picnic on WineC. 2003

H: 42”x 52”

The image has 400 wine glasses filled with a red liquid, artificial grass covered figures and live models. The saturation of the colors gives it a positive feeling. She uses complementary colors, blues, greens and reds. The people sitting on the glasses give the image depth.

Fresh HybridC. 2008

H: 57” x 87.4”

Explores shifting boundaries of life and lifelike. Sandy fabricated the landscape. She replaced grass with pipe cleaners and the bark with wool fibers, the landscape is meant to please humans with soft and fluffy surfaces. The image takes place on a spring day where the trees are blossoming, but instead of blossoming flowers they blossom chicks.

Walking on EggshellsC. 1997

47” x 61”

Skoglund constructed this layout with eggshells, hand-cast paper, sink, bathtubs, a toilet made of cast paper, sculpted epoxy resin snakes and rabbits, and live models. Similar to the design of Revenge of the Goldfish, this could be a relatively normal photo if the animals and eggshells were removed. The dimension and surrealism is created with the out of place objects.

Raining PopcornC. 2001

H: approx. 39” W: 49 ½” L

Skoglund finds an importance in a photograph being completed in a way that allows viewers to understand it whether or not the object being photographed is still in existence.

“... where the landscape is made up of popcorn, rather than having people assume quotidian or ordinary kinds of gestures, I see them more symphonic and ballet-like.”

-Sandy Skoglund

As Far As The Eye Can See

C: 2001

H: Approx 12 ¼” W: 16 ¼”

Skoglund used leaves sculpted from bronze and blue patina in order to create this image. The leaves seem to be out of place within the landscape, but at the same time produce a surreal mood that welcomes the out of place leaves.

“For me this conflict [of interpretation] lies in the heart of the work.”

-Sandy Skoglund

In Conclusion, Sandy Skoglund’s works have evolved over the years. From conceptual images of food, to surreal images such as Fox Games, Revenge of the Goldfish, then to her most recent, Fresh Hybrid. She is very experimental, and she has a go-with-the-flow attitude when creating most of her pieces. Instead of creating an outline and concept sketch, she simply has an idea, plays with it, and changes design elements along the way. Resulting in truly out of the box ideas that relate to real life, allowing her to connect to her viewers.

In Conclusion

Citations"Breathing Glass." Sandy Skoglund breathing glass. Accessed January 28, 2018. http://www.sandyskoglund.com/pages/recent/glass/glassindex.html.

Demetrio Paparoni in conversation with Sandy Skoglund, 1998, transcript. http://www.sandyskoglund.com/pages/published/pages_publish/demetrio.html

Douglas Dreishpoon, “An Interview With Sandy Skoglund”, 2001, transcript http://www.sandyskoglund.com/pages/published/pages_publish/dreishspoon.html

"Fox Games." Fox Games | Denver Art Museum. Accessed January 28, 2018. https://denverartmuseum.org/edu/object/fox-games.

"Home." FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS. Accessed January 28, 2018. http://www.famousphotographers.net/sandy-skoglund.

Metzler, Audra. "Effective Color Picture: "Picnic on Wine" by Sandy Skoglund." Photography 1. January 01, 1970. Accessed January 28, 2018. http://audrametzler.blogspot.com/2009/11/effective-color-picture-picnic-on-wine.html.

"World Art." Annenberg Learner. Accessed January 28, 2018. https://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/242/expert/1/index.html.