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Sandy Skoglund GREEN ROOM
Sandy Skoglund, born 1946, creates surreal 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.
Skoglund’s staged, fantastical images typically present wacky situations in color-infused environments such as a flood of orange-red foxes in a restaurant, dozens of babies dropping from the sky, or the eerie pallor that permeates Ferns.
Skoglund uses a variety of suburban settings. Backyard barbecues, cocktail parties, and bedrooms transformed into ironic and strangley humorous scenarios reflecting themes of dysfunction and the illusionary security of suburbia and the American dream. GATHERING PARADISE, 1991 cibachrome color photograph; Artificial trees and bushes, artificial patio floor, lawn furniture, sculpted epoxy resin squirrels and live models
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. It it a commentary on a post-nulcear society? On how we treat our elderly? RADIOACTIVE CATScibachrome color photograph Sculpted plaster cats and live models
Revenge Of The Goldfish, 1981 Ceramic fish, furniture, live figure models