"Sandy Skoglund: Shimmering Madness and Other Phenomena"
2000-04-01 until 2000-06-11
Norton Museum of Art
West Palm Beach, FL, USA United States of America

This exhibition is comprised of three large-scale installations wherein expectations are undermined; what we know as familiar becomes altered, skewed, and oftentimes turned upside down. Sandy Skoglund: Shimmering Madness and Other Phenomena is organized by the Norton Museum of Art. This exhibition is generously underwritten in part by Mr. and Mrs. William E. Flaherty and through the corporate sponsorship of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. and Brown Brothers Harriman Trust Company of Florida.

Shimmering Madness, completed in 1998, is a new installation and photograph by Skoglund. This installation includes thousands of multi-colored silk and Mylar butterflies on a black background. The butterflies appear to flutter in a mesmerizing way. Multi-colored jellybeans cover the floor and the figures, resulting in an eye-popping artist's vision somewhere between your sweetest dream and your stickiest nightmare.

In addition to Shimmering Madness there will be two other major installations included in the exhibition. Walking on Eggshells is another of Skoglund's important sculptural tableaux. Perhaps the most complex of all Skoglund's undertakings, Walking on Eggshells, 1997, is a tour-de-force combining large-scale cast paper bathroom fixtures, a floor made of thousands of empty eggshells, sculptures of snakes and rabbits, as well as a heroic-scaled hieroglyphic wall of cast paper tiles with printed images of animal icons. This installation is a dazzling display whose visual wealth is also reinforced by its thematic concerns, which include popular culture, daily ritual, the history of art, and the paganism of ancient religions.

The third installation is Skoglund's ambitious 1992 work entitled Cocktail Party. This tongue-in-cheek work depicts a group of mechanized figures, which are covered entirely in Cheese Doodles, milling around a furniture-filled living room that is also covered entirely with Cheese Doodles.

Exhibited alongside will be the photographs of the original installations to which Skoglund often adds additional visual elements, such as live models. Also, in order to give the Norton visitor a broader understanding of the artist, a selection of Sandy Skoglund's photographs of past installations will also be included in the exhibition.

Smith College Museum of Art, in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, has published Sandy Skoglund: Reality Under Siege - A Retrospective. The softcover catalogue is available for $39.95 in the Norton Museum Store ($35.95 Norton Member price).

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Florida

Other Important Exhibitions in Florida