Skoglunds blending of different art forms, including sculpture and photography to create a unique aesthetic, has made her into one of the most original contemporary artists of her generation. Mainly in the sense that what reality actually is is chaos. So there I am, studying Art History like an elite at this college and then on the assembly line with birthday cakes coming down writing Happy Birthday.. I hate to say it. The photographs ranged from the plates on tablecloths of the late 1970s to the more spectacular works of the 1980s and 1990s. Sandy Skoglund Art Site Sandy Skoglund was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Skoglunds art practice creates an aesthetic that brings into question accepted cultural norms. And no, I really dont see it that way. Her process consists of constructing elaborate, surrealist sets and sculptures in bright palettes and then photographing them, complete with costumed actors. But what I would like to do is start so I can get Sandy to talk about the work and her thoughts behind the work. From the Archives: Sandy Skoglund Muse Magazine I knew the basic ingredients and elements, but how to put them together in the picture, would be done through these Polaroids. Skoglunds aesthetic searches for poetic quests that suggest the endless potential to create alternative realities while reimagining the real world. That talks about disorientation and I think from this disorientation, you have to find some way to make meaning of the picture. Sandy Skoglund is known for Sculptor-assemblage, installation. Skoglund: So the plastic spoons here, for example, that was the first thing that I would do is just sort of interplay between intentionality and chance. Since the 1970s, Skoglund has been highly acclaimed. Luntz: And the last image is an outtake of Shimmering Madness.. Do you think in terms of the unreality and reality and the sort of interface between the two? But first Im just saying to myself, I feel like sculpting a fox. Thats it. But they just became unwieldy and didnt feel like snowflakes. And its only because of the way our bodies are made and the way that we have controlled our environment that weve excluded or controlled the chaos. It would be, in a sense, taking the cultures representation of a cat and I wanted this kind of deep, authenticity. From my brain, through this machine to a physical object, to making something that never existed before. The one thing that I feel pretty clear about is what the people are doing and what theyre doing is really not appropriate. For example, her 1973 Crumpled and Copied artwork centered on her repeatedly crumpled and photocopied a piece of paper. So if you want to keep the risk and thrill of the artistic process going, you have to create chances. Im very interested in popular culture and how the intelligentsia deals with popular culture that, you know, theres kind of a split. And I am a big fan of Edward Hoppers work, especially as a young artist. But they want to show the abundance. Meanings come from the interaction of the different objects there and what our perception is. Its actually on photo foil. The works are characterized by an overwhelming amount of one object and either bright, contrasting colors or a monochromatic color scheme. Its letting in the chaos. Revenge then, for me, became my ability to use a popular culture word in my sort of fine art pictures. She painstakingly creates objects for their part in a constructed environment. Thats how this all came about. And she, the woman sitting down, was a student of mine at Rutgers University at the time, in 1980. Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer and installation artist who creates surrealist images by building elaborate sets or tableaux. Sandy Skoglund | Rutgers SASN Luntz: These are interesting because theyre taken out of the studio, correct? Working at Disneyland at the Space Bar in Tomorrow Land, right? I think Im always commenting on human behavior, in this particular case, there is this sort of a cultural notion of the vacation, for example. Because a picture like this is almost fetishistic, its almost like a dream image to me. I mean, what is a dream? But the two of them lived across the hallway from me on Elizabeth Street in New York. The same way that the goldfish exists because of human beings wanting small, bright orange, decorative animals. The armature of the people connected to them. In an on-line Getty Center for Education in the Arts forum, Terry Barrett and Sydney Walker (2013) identify two viable interpretations of Radioactive Cats. And thats a sort of overarching theme really with all the work. Skoglund's oeuvre is truly special. So this kind of coping with the chaos of reality is more important in the old work. Skoglund is known for her large format Cibachromes, a photographic process that results in bright color and exact image clarity. And so that was where this was coming from in my mind. As a conceptual art student and later a professional artist and educator, Sandy Skoglund has created a body of work that reimagines a world of unlimited possibilities. They might be old clothes, old habits, anything discarded or rejected. Luntz: This one has this kind of unified color. I mean, is it the tail? So the first thing I worked with in this particular piece is what makes a snowflake look like a flake versus a star or something else. That it wouldnt be coming from my soul and my heart. Biography - Sandy Skoglund Based on the logic that everyone eats, she has developed her own universal language around food, bright colors, and patterns to connect with her audience. The two main figures are probably six feet away. Skoglund: Probably the most important thing was not knowing what I was doing. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in any emails. Her interest in Conceptualism led her to photography, which . The other thing that I personally really liked about Winter is that, while it took me quite a long time to do, I felt like I had to do even more than just the flakes and the sculptures and the people and I just love the crumpled background. Meaning the chance was, well here are all these plastic spoons at the store. Luntz: This picture and this installation I know well because when we met, about 25 years ago, the Norton had given you an exhibition. And thats why I use grass everywhere thinking that, Well, the dogs probably see places where they can urinate more than we would see the living room in that way. So, those kinds of signals I guess. Theyre all very similar so there comes all that repetition again. At that point, Ive already made all the roses. But this is the first time, I think, you show in Europe correct? I think you must be terribly excited by the learning process. "The artist sculpted the life-size cats herself using chicken wire and plaster, and painted them bright green. Learn more about our policy: Privacy Policy, The Constructed Environments of Sandy Skoglund, The Curious and Creative Eye The Visual Language of Humor, The Fictional Reality and Symbolism of Sandy Skoglund, Sandy Skoglund: an Exclusive Print for Holden Luntz Gallery. Why? Skoglund: But here you see the sort of quasi-industrial process. Skoglund: Your second phrase for sure. This is interesting because, for me, it, it deals in things that people are afraid of. Her repetitive, process-oriented art production includes handmade objects as well as kitsch subject matter. Your career has been that significant. So that concept where the thing makes itself is sort of part of what happens with me. What kind of an animal does it look like? So I probably made about 30 or 40 plaster cats and I ended up throwing out quite a few, little by little, because I hated them. The Constructed Environments of Sandy Skoglund - YouTube Some of the development of it? Whats going on here? Sandy Skoglund | Artist | eazel Its really a beautiful piece to look at because youre not sure what to do with it. It almost looks like a sort of a survival mode piece, but maybe thats just my interpretation. On View: Message from Our Planet - Digital Art from the Thoma Collection More, Make the most of your visit More, Sustaining Members get 10% off in the WAM Shop More, May 1, 2023 Luntz: And to me its a sense of understanding nature and understanding the environment and understanding early on that were sort of shepherds to that environment and if you mess with the environment, it has consequences. Skoglund: Right. I know what that is. But its used inappropriately, its used in not only inappropriately its also used very excessively in the imagery as well. To me, you have always been a remarkable inspiration about what photography can be and what art can be and the sense of the materials and the aspirations of an artist. After working so hard and after having such intention in the work, of saying that the work exists and has meanings on so many different levels to different people and sometimes they dont correspond at all, like what I was saying, to what you thought and youre saying, well, thats a very simplistic reading that its popular culture, its a time of excess, that the Americans have plenty to eat and they have this comfort and that sort of defines them by the things that are available to them. As a passionate artist, who uses the mediums of sculpture, painting, photography, and installation, and whose concepts strike at the heart of American individuality, Skoglunds work opens doors to reinvention, transformation, and new perspectives. I mean there are easier, faster ways. How do you go about doing that? Luntz: So we start in the 70s with, you can sort of say what was on your mind when this kind of early work was created, Sandy. Youre a prime example of everything that youve done leading up to this comes into play with your work. She studied both art history and studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1968. For the first time in Italy, CAMERA. So this sort of clustering and accumulation, which was present in a lot of minimalism and conceptualism, came in to me through this other completely different way of representative sculpture. In her over 60 years of career, Sandy Skoglund responds to the worries of contemporary life with a fantastical imagination which recalls the grotesque bestiary of Hieronymus Bosch and the parallel dimensions of David Lynch. In 1972, Skoglund began working as a conceptual artist in New York City. And in 1980, wanting these small F-stop, wanting great depth of field, wanting a picture that was sharp throughout, that meant I had to have long exposures, and a cat would be moving, would be blurry, would maybe not even be there, so blurry. And in the newer work its more like Im really in here now. Exhibition Review: Food Still Lifes at the Ryan Lee Gallery Muse I mean theyre just, I usually cascade a whole number of, I would say pieces of access or pieces of content. Sandy Skoglund, a multi-media, conceptual artist whose several decades of work have been very influential, introduced new ideas, and challenged simple categorizations, is one of those unique figures in contemporary art. She went on to study at the Sorbonne and cole du Louvre in Paris, as well as the University of Iowa. Esteemed institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum in New York all include Skoglunds work. So the answer to that really has to be that the journey is what matters, not the end result. So thats something that you had to teach yourself. She shares her experiences as a university professor, moving throughout the country, and how living in a mobile home shaped her art practice through photographs, sketches, and documentation of her work. From Our Archives: Sandy Skoglund Muse Magazine We found popcorn poppers in the southwest. Luntz: So this is very early looking back at you know one of the earliest. So I said well, I really wanted to work with a liquid floor. I remember seeing this negative when I was selecting the one that was eventually used and I remember her arm feeling like it was too much, too important in the picture. Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Sandy Skoglund moved around the U.S. during her childhood. Skoglund: Well, I think youve hit on a point which is kind of a characteristic of mine which is, who in the world would do this? But then I felt like you had this issue of wanting to show weather, wanting to show wind. Reflecting on her best-known images, Skoglund began printing alternative shots from some of her striking installations. If the models were doing something different and the camera rectangle is different, does, do the outtake images mean something slightly different from the original image? Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1946, Skoglund studied Fine Art and Art History at the prestigious Smith College (also alma mater to Sylvia Plath) and went on to complete graduate studies at the University of Iowa, where she specialised in filmmaking, printmaking and multimedia art.