Sandy Skoglund Radioactive Cats

SPOTLIGHT REVIEW
SANDY SIKOGLUND: RADIOACTIVE CATS

Smith College Museum of Art - Northampton, MA www.smith.edu/museum - Through September 7, 2008 Radioactive Cats (1980). To prepare for this installation, Muehlig corresponded with Skoglund. The aging green plaster cats were repaired and touched up. The grey paint and wall texture were suitably inconsistent and industrial looking. Some original elements were no longer available, so Muehlig acquired an old radiator from Smith's physical plant, and purchased a vintage refrigerator. Table and chairs remain original, circa 1980. On stage left, the iconic photographic image Radioactive Cats (1980) serves as the original for many of us. Understandably, it stands physically overshadowed by the very objects it depicts, but is sharpened by its medium, and continues the witty suggestion of creation in the chicken-or-egg paradox. Final positioning of the cats in the installation cleverly followed the appearance of the photograph, but inversely. Some differences are not noticeable, but clearly the live models with their backs toward the viewer are absent from the installation. The temporal quality that is evident in photography can also be seen in the installation: mimesis of the feline motion, read as multiple aspects of a single cat's journey across the kitchen. In the case of this recent installation and the surrounding images and sculpture, Skoglund's work extends the proximity and association of her own works to each other. She is able to capitalize on the possibilities of each medium, minimizing the formal, technical differences, while expanding on the effect of each. At SCMA, there is a synergy in the gallery as Skoglund continues to explore possibilities of time, space, and even expectations of her own work. -Paul Bloomfield
Sandy Skoglund, RadioactiveCats (installation view), dimensions variable, 1980 (original) &2008. Smith College Museum of Art.
mith College and its Museum of Art are celebrating an impressive forty-year relationship with artist Sandy Skoglund, whose well-known installation Radioactive Cats (1980) is on display for the first time since the museum acquired the piece in 2004. Along with this icon of contemporary art is a bronze sculpture of a rabbit and several large color photographs that will rotate with others in the museum's holdings in the months to come. Skoglund's sophisticated integration of mimesis sculpture, photography, and installation continues to present the multiple visions of reality for which we know her. As an art student at Smith, Skoglund worked with sculptor Elliot Offner, who helped develop her interest in the three-dimensional. After graduate work at the University of Iowa, Skoglund moved to New York City in the 1970s and explored conceptual and performance art, using photography to record it. In the process, photographic media became an intrinsic part of her approach to conceiving and producing work. With colors maximized for attention, earlier photographs, such as Cookies on a Plate and Peas on a Plate (1978), take into account not just optical usage of pattern and form; they also demonstrate her ability to capitalize on the humorous potential of objects' context and meaning. In many ways, Skoglund's skill as a photographer can be seen in the context of high-gloss
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advertising imagery, whose allure is supported by studio lighting, sets and props, models, and assistants. But rather than merely seeking the end product, Skoglund needs to explore the process of her work, explains Linda Muehlig, Smith's associate curator of painting and sculpture and curator of the 1998 retrospective Realihy Under Siege. In the large color photograph Walking on Eggshells (1997), the artist learned how to fabricate and cast in paper to create the toilet, bathtub, and basin. In this bathroom scene, dreamy, muted browns fill the frame as two nude women walk away from the viewer on a floor of eggshells, leaving a trail of fine shards. A rabbit looks on, while resin-cast snakes with shimmering scales rear their heads in the foreground. Covering the walls are printed paper tiles of hieroglyphic imagery. Unlike the jarring color combinations in much of Skoglund's work, the ambiance here is calm and welcoming. Here ind throughout her work, Skoglund's obsession with repetition and pattern serves as texture, both figural and literal. We are reminded of the mutual existence of the singular and multiple of realities in content and production. To exemplify such duality, in front of this photograph is a bronze rabbit, a witty echo of the photograph itself. Center stage-and impossible to missare the dozen or so green cats popping out against the drab, gray walls in the installation
Sandy Skogiund, Walking on Eggshells,dimensions variable, 1997, Sandy Skoglund. Courtesy of the Smith College Museum of Art,
August/September 2008
ART NEW ENGLAND
39
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TITLE: Sandy Skoglund: Radioactive Cats SOURCE: Art N Engl 29 no5 Ag/S 2008 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher: http://www.artnewengland.com/index.html

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SPOTLIGHT REVIEW

SANDY SIKOGLUND: RADIOACTIVE CATS

ART NEW ENGLAND

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