RADIOACTIVE CATS-Sandy Skoglund

1) WORDS/IDEAS/FEELINGS THAT COME TO MIND …

-ugly

-sad

-debauchery

-boredom

-surrealist

-pitiful

-anxiety

-strange world

-quantity

-flash color

-radiocats

-animals of the future

-bad cats

-trouble

-rest

I think it’s a regular situation, but quantity creates a sort of very strange trouble. Cats are green, so they appear very flashy on the gray background This aspect is also very disturbing.

2) THIS PHOTO IS PART OF A SERIES CALLED “FAMILY PORTRAITS”… WHAT KINDS OF IS IT?!

It’s photographic portrait, but it’s also a tableau. Because the cats are not very real, not very concrete, so it’s a tableau.

3) WHAT DOES IT SHOW (describe the various elements, the situation, the atmosphere, etc…)?

We see radioactive, green-painted cats running amok through a grey kitchen. An old man sits in a chair with his back facing the camera while his elderly wife looks into a refrigerator which is the same colour as the walls.

The Colour of cats and the colours of the rest of the kitchen are much contrasted. The cats seem to be fluorescent.

It’s a normal situation: a couple with his cats. But the overwhelming number of cats is very scaring.

I’d just like to add : this picture is very representative of this disturbed period. In my opinion cats are victims of nuclear dangers. But also, the boredom and sadness of these two elderly persons is the result of the trouble and fear these people felt during the Cold War.

4) WHAT ARE THE THEMES? (UGLINESS…)

I would say: A paradoxal normality, a quantity frighten.

5) WHAT IS THE MESSAGE? (If any)

I think the message of this photo/tableau is the consequence of the fear of a major nuclear conflict during the Cold war. So, this work of art points out nuclear and war dangers. Il also reflects the sadness and disarray of people living between war and freedom.

6) WHAT,BASED ON THIS EXAMPLE, IS THE PURPOSE OF (this work of art) ART ?

This work of art was done to show the difficult life of people living in doubt and in terrible uncertainty. They didn’t know whether the war would burst out .