Summary Of Sandy Skoglund's Revenge Of The Goldfish

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Comparing different works of art from one artist can help a person gain a better understanding of an artist and the purpose of their artwork. An artist’s works of art usually have similarities as well as differences when compared together. Sandy Skoglund is a photographer that stages entire rooms to create a scene for her photographs. Skoglund uses painting, sculpture, and photography to create her artwork. Due to the fact that most of her photographs are created in similar ways, almost all of her photographs have similar components represented throughout the photographs. Differences can be found in her artwork as well. Skoglund’s Revenge of The Goldfish, 1981 (Figure 1), is a popular work of art that is represented at the Akron Art Museum …show more content…

For example, in many of her photographs, she portrays animals as if they have taken over the human world and become the dominant species. In Revenge of The Goldfish, there are large, brightly colored goldfish scattered throughout the bedroom of a young boy as he sits on his bed. The mysterious fish create a dramatic scenery where the fish are seen as taking over the human’s bedroom. Skoglund’s The Green House, 1990, Janet Borden gallery (Figure 2), is constructed of 33 life-sized dog sculptures placed throughout a room portrayed as a living room. The idea that when we look at this photograph, the main concentrations are the animals in the room and the humans are second again suggests that the people are living in a world of animals, rather than the other way around. Animals are not always the main idea portrayed in her photographs. Skoglund’s A Breeze at Work, 1981, Damon Brandt Gallery (Figure 3), portrays an ordinary office workspace with a tree and with bright blue hand-sculptured leaves flying throughout the entire room as if blown by the …show more content…

Revenge of the Goldfish used the complementary colors of blue and orange with bright orange fish and a blue bedroom. The use of these contrasting colors make the fish ‘pop’ in the photograph while the blue seems to fade into the back and doesn’t stand out as much. Skoglund’s A Breeze at Work uses complementary colors as well. The entire office space is a rusty brown-orange color with blue leaves. These contrasting colors make the blue leaves stand out in this particular photograph. In another piece of art titled Radioactive Cats, Skoglund uses colors in a slightly different way to make the animals in the photograph stand out. In this work of art, there is an elderly couple in their all grey kitchen. The only true color in the photograph aside from the human’s skin, is the bright green cats that are dispersed throughout the room. This image does not use complementary colors, but the colors do repel each other, resulting in the green cats standing out more than the grey

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