Sandy Skoglund
(born 11 September 1946) is an American photographer and
installation artist.
Skoglund creates surrealist images by building elaborate sets or tableaux,
furnishing them with carefully selected colored furniture and other
objects, a process of which takes her months to complete. Finally, she
photographs the set, complete with actors. The works are characterized by
an overwhelming amount of one object and either bright, contrasting colors
or a monochromatic color scheme.
Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, Skoglund studied both art history and
studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in
1968. In 1967, she studied art history at the Sorbonne and Ecole Du Louvre
in Paris, France. After graduating from Smith College, she went to
graduate school at the University of Iowa in 1969, where she studied
filmmaking, multimedia art, and printmaking. In 1971, she earned her
Master of Arts and in 1972 a Master of Fine Arts in painting.
In 1972, Skoglund began working as a conceptual artist in New York. She
became interested in teaching herself photography to document her artistic
endeavors, experimenting with themes of repetition. In 1978, she had
produced a series of repetitious food item still life images.
One of her most-known photographs, entitled Radioactive Cats, features
green-painted clay cats running amok in a gray kitchen. An older man sits
in a chair with his back facing the camera while his elderly wife looks
into a refrigerator that is the same color as the walls. Another image,
Fox Games has a similar feel to Radioactive Cats and is also widely
recognized. A third and final oft-recognized piece by her features
numerous fish hovering above people in bed late at night and is called
Revenge of the Goldfish. The piece was used as cover art for the Inspiral
Carpets album of the same name.
Skoglund was an art professor at the University of Hartford between 1973
and 1976. She is currently teaching photography and art
installation/multimedia at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Skoglund has recently completed a series titled "True Fiction Two". This
recent project is similar to the "True Fiction" series that she began in
1986. This series was not completed due to the discontinuation of
materials that Skoglund was using. Kodak canceled the production of the
dye that Skoglund was using for her prints. Each image in "True Fiction
Two" has been meticulously crafted to assimilate the visual and
photographic possibilities now available in digital processes.
