Palm Trees in Suspense 1986

This is *Palm Trees in Suspense* by Sandy Skoglund. The image is a photograph, but it is made using props and sets, and the color is really intense. I’m imagining Skoglund setting up this scene; first, the room and then the models… and the color! The vivid, almost cloying pinks and blues create a sense of unease. It reminds me of David Hockney or even some of the Pop artists. The composition is awkward, and the gestures of the figures are so unnatural. I wonder if Skoglund was thinking about alienation, a theme so often explored in painting. She orchestrates these photographic scenes, but there is no real narrative content, as such. It is like a painting in the way that it invites you to make up your own story. Skoglund’s work suggests to me that all art forms are constantly feeding into one another. It's all one big conversation!