Doris Salcedo
Doris Salcedo is a Colombian sculptor. She received her BFA at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in 1980. Salcedo moved to New York for her MFA at NY University. After graduating, she returned to Bogota and taught at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Her work is influenced by her experiences, especially those that occurred in Colombia. She uses commonplace items like wood furniture, clothing, concrete, grass, rose petals, etc. Salcedo uses these items to give form to pain, trauma, and loss she's experienced. She has lost members in her family because of the politically troubled situation in Colombia. Her work creates a space for individual and collective mourning for others who are affected. She emphasizes how you can mourn someone who has passed away, but their disappearance leaves emptiness in one's life.
"The way that an artwork brings materials together is incredibly powerful. Sculpture is its materiality. I work with materials that are already charged with significance, with meaning they have required in the practice of everyday life...then, I work to the point where it becomes something else, where metamorphosis is reached."
Through her work, Salcedo embodies the silenced lives of the marginalized, the victims of violence to the disempowered of the third world. She does not want her work to be seen as memorials, but wants to concretize absence, oppression, and the gap between the disempowered and powerful.
Her work is influenced by her experiences, especially those that occurred in Colombia. She uses commonplace items like wood furniture, clothing, concrete, grass, rose petals, etc. Salcedo uses these items to give form to pain, trauma, and loss she's experienced. She has lost members in her family because of the politically troubled situation in Colombia. Her work creates a space for individual and collective mourning for others who are affected. She emphasizes how you can mourn someone who has passed away, but their disappearance leaves emptiness in one's life.
"The way that an artwork brings materials together is incredibly powerful. Sculpture is its materiality. I work with materials that are already charged with significance, with meaning they have required in the practice of everyday life...then, I work to the point where it becomes something else, where metamorphosis is reached."
Through her work, Salcedo embodies the silenced lives of the marginalized, the victims of violence to the disempowered of the third world. She does not want her work to be seen as memorials, but wants to concretize absence, oppression, and the gap between the disempowered and powerful.
Sandy Skoglund
Sandy Skoglund is an American photographer and installation artist. She was born in 1946 in Massachusetts. She spent most of her childhood in Maine, Connecticut, and California. Skoglund studied art history and studio art at Smith College in Massachusetts and graduated in 1968. Skoglund went to the University of Iowa for Grad school. She studied filmmaking, multimedia art, and printmaking. In 1971, she earned her Master of Arts, and her Master of Fine Arts in painting in 1972. She was a professor at the University of Hartford between 1973 to 1976. Skoglund currently teaches photography and art installation/multimedia at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Skoglund in known for her elaborate sets she fills with props, figurines, and human models. She explores the aesthetics of artificiality and the effects of interrupting common reality, which creates a dreamlike quality to when she photographs the scene. When creating her surreal sets she carefully selects furniture and objects. Usually her scenes are characterized by an overwhelming amount of object. She uses either contrasting colors or monochromatic color schemes.
Sandy Skoglund's work really stood out to me because of her color choices. I first saw Revenge of the Goldfish, and was drawn to the contrast between the blue and orange. Radioactive Cats was also attention grabbing because of her color choices. She overwhelms the scene with the same object, while carefully placing furniture and models into the scene before photographing her work. She experiments with repetition and themes. Most of the scenes she creates take months to complete. In her scenes, she tries to convey that the life of imagination frees people to the idea that their daydreams are just as important as any other person.
Skoglund in known for her elaborate sets she fills with props, figurines, and human models. She explores the aesthetics of artificiality and the effects of interrupting common reality, which creates a dreamlike quality to when she photographs the scene. When creating her surreal sets she carefully selects furniture and objects. Usually her scenes are characterized by an overwhelming amount of object. She uses either contrasting colors or monochromatic color schemes.
Sandy Skoglund's work really stood out to me because of her color choices. I first saw Revenge of the Goldfish, and was drawn to the contrast between the blue and orange. Radioactive Cats was also attention grabbing because of her color choices. She overwhelms the scene with the same object, while carefully placing furniture and models into the scene before photographing her work. She experiments with repetition and themes. Most of the scenes she creates take months to complete. In her scenes, she tries to convey that the life of imagination frees people to the idea that their daydreams are just as important as any other person.
Giuseppe Penone
Giuseppe Penone is an Italian artist born in 1947. In 1968, he started working in the Garessio forest. His work focuses of the growth of a tree. Penone has said the tree is a perfect sculpture, as it records its experience within its structure. Every part of a tree is essential to its existence. He focuses on the traces of contacts between the tree and himself.
I really enjoyed most of his work, but Spazio di Luce stood out to me. For this piece, Penone used a method of lost wax casting to replicate the tree's texture in bronze. The interior is stunning in gold-leaf. It's a perfect example of his emphasis on the contact between a person and nature.
If Penone was in our sculpture class and was given the task to build a wood toolbox that reflected himself, I think he would wander around campus and take in the flora that is around us. I don't think he'd change the exterior of his materials, and would explore their growth patterns.
I really enjoyed most of his work, but Spazio di Luce stood out to me. For this piece, Penone used a method of lost wax casting to replicate the tree's texture in bronze. The interior is stunning in gold-leaf. It's a perfect example of his emphasis on the contact between a person and nature.
If Penone was in our sculpture class and was given the task to build a wood toolbox that reflected himself, I think he would wander around campus and take in the flora that is around us. I don't think he'd change the exterior of his materials, and would explore their growth patterns.