Currently on view

SHIMMERING MADNESS
An Installation by Sandy Skoglund

Sandy Skoglund, American (born 1946). SHIMMERING MADNESS, 1998 Installation:  Jelly beans, wood, plastic, metal, motors Museum purchase, 2001.34 c 1998 Sandy Skoglund

Created by New York-based artist/photographer Sandy Skoglund, Shimmering Madness is a breathtaking installation consisting of a brightly colored, enameled jellybean floor buttressed against two walls that have been densely covered with small kinetic, hand-painted butterflies. In the midst of this fantastic room are two jellybean-covered figures assembled in dance-like poses with their heads spun backward.

Skoglund moved to New York in 1972, where she started working as a
conceptual artist. In the late 1970s, she began to teach herself
photography to fulfill her desire to document her work. This developing
interest in photographic technique later became fused with her interest in
popular culture and commercial picture making strategies, resulting in
what is referred to as a "fabricated image," or an image that illustrates
an artificial construction of reality and not reality itself.

Because Skoglund's goal is to "be in contact with reality and at the same
time alter it," her interpretation of the "image" in both her installations
and the photographs of her installations often experientially transports the viewer into the realm of the surreal. By incorporating multiples of
everyday objects, such as food, into her installations (as seen here in the
form of thousands of jellybeans), Skoglund redefines the concept of what is precious and beautiful in art.

"I like to work with food because it is a familiar material," Skoglund
explains. "The value of art, the educational value of art, the sort of life
affirming value of art has to do with bringing our awareness of the
everyday miracle that's around us, that everything is, in its own way, if
you look at it, quite strange and quite marvelous. For me, food is an icon of familiarity, which is so natural to us on a daily basis that it's almost invisible." Skoglund has achieved international recognition as a photographer, and her installations have been commissioned and acquired by museums and universities around the world.