Dreadful evocations include humanity’s erosion by
a consumptive environment, and the horror in
understanding that we have become as artificial as
the processed food we eat.
Food plays a significant role in many Skoglund
works. The artist has an admitted fascination with
commercial food photography since in this visual
discipline artifice is heightened as food is dyed,
composed, and altered in unappetizing ways to
achieve optimal photographability. An especially
notable group of early photographic works includes
studies of foods on patterned backgrounds, for
example, theNine Slices of Marblecake(1978) on
obviously machine-printed ‘‘marbleized’’ paper and
stripedCookies on a Plate(1978) situated on high-
key plaid wallpaper. The most poignant of her food
works areSpirituality of the FleshandBody Limits
(1992), in which mannequins and total environ-
ments are covered, respectively, in raw hamburger
meat and uncooked bacon.At the Shore(1994) is
another notable food work; here, 10 bikinied Bar-
bies bask on a beach of golden French fries. The
feminist critique of impossible beauty standards
can’t be missed when juxtaposed with America’s
favorite—fast, fattening food. Similarly meaningful
are the tiered cake, strawberry jam walls, and
orange marmalade floor ofThe Wedding(1994)
through which Skoglund comments on the cloying
quality of love and marriage.
Animals are used as another symbolic theme in
many other Skoglund works. Her similar, though
uniquely sculpted, creatures visually dominate each
setting and the people within them. For instance,
dozens of squirrels swarm the bright pink and blue
suburban porch ofGathering Paradise(1991). The
proliferation of these birdfeeder banes is a nightmar-
ish revenge of nature on tract developments imping-
ing on ‘‘wild’’ spaces. The dualism of ‘‘nature’’ and
‘‘culture’’ is obvious, but the animals Skogland has
used, including foxes, cats, dogs, fish, rabbits, and
snakes, also connote myths and fables.
In 1998, Smith College Museum of Art organized
a comprehensive retrospective, Sandy Skoglund:
Reality Under Siege, of its esteemed alumna’s
work. To date, the accompanying catalogue is the
most important monograph covering this artist’s
oeuvre. Skoglund exhibits internationally and
develops new installations and photographs in con-
junction with art institutions that commission her
work. These includeBreathing Glass(2000), featur-
ing thousands of mechanically animated glass dra-
gonflies andPicnic on Wine (2004) with figures
situated atop a landscape of filled red wine glasses.
Since the mid-1990s, Skoglund has also worked with
many college art programs and students to create
collaborative installations.
WilliamV. Ganis
Seealso:History of Photography: the 1980sBiography
Born Sandra Skoglund in Quincy, Massachusetts, 1946.
The artist lives and works in New York, New York.
Studied at Sorbonne and E ́cole de Louvre, 1966–1967;
B.A. Smith College, 1968; M.A. University of Iowa,
1971; M.F.A. University of Iowa, 1972, but self-edu-
cated in photography. Moved to New York, New
York, 1972; Instructor in art at University of Hartford,
Hartford Art School, 1973–1976; instructor of photo-
graphy, installation and multi-media arts, Rutgers Uni-
versity, Newark, New Jersey 1976–present. Smith
College Medal, 2003.Individual Exhibitions
1980 Radioactive Cats; Real Art Ways; Hartford, Connecticut
1981 Revenge of the Goldfish; Castelli Graphics; New York,
New York
1984 Maybe Babies/Sandy Skoglund; Galerie Watari; Tokyo,
Japan
1987 True Fiction; Castelli Uptown Gallery; New York,
New York, and Real Art Ways; Hartford, Connecticut
1990 Sandy Skoglund: True Fiction and Fox Games; George
Eastman House; Rochester, New York
1991 Sandy Skoglund: Foto-Inszenierungen 1986–1991;Sta ̈d-
tische Galerie; Erlangen, Germany, and traveling
1992 In the Last Hour: Sandy Skoglund Photographs and
Sculpture 1979–1992; Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art;
University of Oklahoma, and traveling
1993 Sandy Skoglund: A Survey of Works from 1979 to- Installations, Photographs, Sculpture; Bernard
Toale Gallery; Boston, Massachusetts
1995 Sandy Skoglund: The Subject of Food; Ehlers Caudill
Gallery; Chicago, Illinois
1998 Sandy Skoglund: Reality Under Siege-A Retrospective;
Smith College Museum of Art; Northampton, Massa-
chusetts, and traveling
2000 Breathing Glass; American Craft Museum; New York,
New York, and traveling
2004 Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting the Real; COPIA, The
American Center For Wine, Food and the Arts; Napa,
California
Group Exhibitions
1981 Whitney Biennial Exhibition; Whitney Museum of Art;
New York, New York
1981 The New Color: A Decade of Color Photography; Ever-
son Museum of Art; Syracuse, New York, International
Center of Photography; New York, New York and trav-
eling
1984 The Contemporary Photograph 1980s: Toward a New
Development; Fukuoka Art Museum; Fukuoka JapanSKOGLUND, SANDY