Sandy Skoglund

I have found researching Sandy Skoglund extremely useful as she works in a similar way we are required to during our group project, that is, she designs and builds sets under the theme of 'uncanny' and 'surrealism' before photographing them. 

"In her work, Skoglund explores the aesthetics of artificiality and the effects of interrupting common reality" whilst "the juxtapositions she creates...are surprising, strange and new." These juxtapositions give way to the uncanny ambience her work encompasses.   

This particular piece offers an example of the aforementioned juxtapositions, the form of the baby is nothing new to the viewer yet the scale is; the size of the 'sculptures' conflicts the thoughts and emotions which are usually produced at the sight of a baby, that is, an instinctive need to look after and be close to the child. Skoglund's portrayal of the babies, makes the viewer reconsider such feelings as the their unusually large size and confident stance suggests they are 'independent'. Uncanny.


Surreal: Having the qualities of surrealism; bizarre: "a surreal mix of fact and fantasy" (Google definitions)

When one considers the definition of 'surreal' and 'surrealism', it is obvious that Sandy Skoglund works within this realm, when creating her sets, for example, the image below shows how Skoglund has taken a 'typical' scene of a couple in a bedroom at night and added an element of surrealism with the introduction of the 'flying' fish. This scene pulls the viewer into a dream scene and one can almost sense the fluid motion of the fishes movement around the room. This is also encouraged by the colours chosen by Skoglund, the less important objects such as the lamps are a dull blue/grey colour whilst the people and fish are bright skin coloured and orange, thus drawing the viewer's attention to them. 

I really admire what Sandy Skoglund has done with the colours and dressing of her sets and would hope to emulate this in my own work. 




(http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/242/index.html)