Sandy Skogland’s Photographs Of Surreal Scenarios Are Bizarre And Wonderful
Sandy Skogland‘s surrealist photographs are, for the most part, produced without the use of photoshop as many of the images – particularly the ones here – were created before it came to dominate the photographic landscape. Incredibly these images, these photos of bizarre tableaux, elaborate scenarios, theatrical sets, with their own interior narrative, are real, they breathe, they also take months to design, build and complete.
As you can see from the images Skogland often zones in on one object – usually odd materials such as pipe cleaners, popcorn, etc – to build with and a contrasting or monochromatic color scheme to paint in. The consequence of her choices are these overpowering scenarios that scream at you, want to suck you into their over-hyped universe – which for me are an indictment of our oversaturated consumer lives, the colours, her materials reminiscent of advertising billboards, cereal boxes, TV ads and so on. Maybe not. Perhaps she just likes creating surreal images out of odd materials and bold colours. Who knows? You can read what you like into them. For me its all about the politics of consumption. Speaking of which you might recognise the goldfish image. It’s called ‘Revenge Of The Goldfish’ and was used as the cover for an ‘Inspiral Carpets’ album of the same name. Ring any bells?
Skogland has been making work since the early 70s, most of it hugely enjoyable, technically accomplished and creatively liberating and I’m looking forward to her next series ‘Winter’.
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