Sandy Skoglund: Post-Modern Inspiration.

In describing her work in a book aptly entitled Reality Under Siege, photographer and sculptor Sandy Skoglund says, "I would say that it falls within the idea of a theme park ... almost non-art." Upon seeing her photographs and installations at the Cincinnati Art Museum over the summer, my colleague, Melissa Rupe, and I decided that the work was most definitely art and most importantly, art that would appeal to and stretch the minds of our students.

We had both heard of Sandy Skoglund and seen reproductions, but seeing her installations in person is truly a "theme park-like" experience. The large scale, bright colors, and especially the subject matter give her work a whimsical and Surrealistic feel. We knew that our students would respond to seeing her work, and although the exhibition was leaving town before the school year started, we were inspired to expose our students to this unique contemporary artist.

A Project for the Entire School

We decided to have all the elementary students at our school, about 550 first through sixth graders, participate in a group installation. The piece that served as the model for our project was Skoglund's work entitled The Cocktail Party. This piece, which was on display at the Cincinnat Art Museum, consists of a room made up of two walls, a floor, furniture, barware, and mannequins. The scene looks like what might take place at a cocktail party--people drinking and socializing with each other. However, everything in the installation is covered with cheese doodles. The result is striking. Everything in the piece is bright orange, and upon closer inspection, the cheese doodles begin to form interesting patterns.

After collecting what old furniture we could find in the school basement, we had our own little scene: foam board for walls, cardboard for the floor, an old school desk, a folding chair, and a lamp and shade with a rectangular cardboard box to rest them on. In our treatment of the installation, we decided to stick with some sort of food. Skoglund uses a variety of foods in her work, such as raisins, bacon, french fries, hamburger patties, and mustard. Because some of her works are only assembled to be photographed, she can use time- and temperature-sensitive food. We wanted something nonperishable, so we chose uncooked rigatoni pasta. Rigatoni adhered to our installation surfaces with regular school glue particularly well because of its ridges, and its slight curve enabled the students to form wonderful patterns.

Sixty-Seven Boxes of Rigatoni

We were not sure how long the project would take or how much pasta we would need, but we decided to incorporate the installation into the school's annual haunted house, so we definitely had a deadline. We introduced each of our classes to Skoglund and her work, showing reproductions and giving the students information from Reality Under Seige. Students were fascinated with her work and the process. It is so distinctive that the kids developed a feel for it right away. Another integral part of the project was the art criticism portion, during which we discussed the humor in Skoglund's work. For example, in her piece Revenge of the Goldfish, she created an entire bedroom scene, painted everything blue-green, and had a myriad of giant ceramic goldfish everywhere--hanging from the ceiling, coming out of drawers, and hiding under the bed. After looking at this piece, we talked about what Skoglund meant. Almost every student had had at least one goldfish that had departed this world--maybe this was all of those goldfish coming back!

Each class took one entire 45-minute period to glue rigatoni to all of the elements of the installation. About sixty-seven boxes (8,409 pieces of pasta) later, everything was covered. Since Skoglund uses bright colors, we spray painted different parts of the scene fluorescent orange and yellow. Because of safety concerns, we painted outside for ventilation and did not involve any students in this portion of the process. Painting in the bright colors was particularly effective because the colors glowed intensely under the black lights in the haunted house. We put a glow-in-the-dark skeleton in the chair and some pasta-encrusted books on the table to create a scene of a student who had been worked too hard.

A Pasta-rrific Project

The end result was a great success. We had a project that had been worked on by every art student at Terrace Park Elementary. The process had been financially supported by our PTA and had only taken one class period per art class. We displayed the final piece so that nearly every child and many of the parents saw it, and it looked even more Surreal in a haunted house. All of the students had a sense of ownership and the feeling that they had accomplished a considerable work of art.

In addition to the art production portion of the project, our students were introduced to a very contemporary and very recognizable artist. I recently had a parent tell me that she was with some of our sixth-graders in an office building lobby that had some of Skoglund's photographs on display. The students recognized them immediately and began telling the parent about her work. It can sometimes be difficult to present artists who are timely and appropriate for the elementary classroom. Skoglund is a great example of an artist who is very current and whose work really appeals to students.

Source:

Skoglund, Sandy, Reality Under Seige: A Retrospective, Smith College Museum of Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1998. (A catalog of an exhibition)

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art

Safety Note: Make sure there is proper ventilation when using spray paint.

Shelley Komrska and Melissa Rupe are elementary art teachers at Terrace Park Elementary School in Terrace Park, Ohio.