Peter Sandback is an artist and furniture maker working in southern New Hampshire. He received his BFA from the University of Michigan and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
A bit from the artist: My recent work revolves around the nature of specimens. The first iteration of this idea took the form of photographs taken in natural history museums. The exhibits are often beautiful—the result of close collaboration between scientists and artists—and works of art in their own right.
At the same time, they carry an undercurrent of violence. It is difficult to ignore that the animals on display were once living beings, killed, skinned, and preserved. The work exists in a space between scientific inquiry and aesthetic construction, where beauty and unease coexist.
I am also interested in the painted backdrops of the dioramas. These landscapes, often more gestural and expressive than one might expect, are among the most evocative elements of the displays, yet they are rarely examined closely. I have made numerous photographs of these paintings, isolating and reconsidering them as independent works.
In other pieces, I layer these landscape images with photographs of three-dimensional objects, often including taxidermied animals. Through this overlay, the boundary between representation and specimen becomes unstable, and the act of looking is complicated.
The notion of the specimen also extends into my sculpture. In these works, unrelated objects—a log, a sweet potato, a cracker, a fried pork rind—are placed within display boxes. This mode of presentation elevates them, transforming ordinary materials into specimens. Removed from their original contexts, they invite scrutiny, comparison, and interpretation.
