CINDY SHERMAN

1. CINDY SHERMAN Researchers: layal Abdullah, will fowler, Hadis azarain, lissy broad,

2. Cindy Sherman Born in 1954 Lives in New York Photographer

4. What materials does the artist use? • Cindy Sherman's photography focuses on enhancing females clichés of 20th century pop culture. she attempts to recreate the female role engraved in history and the contemporary society, using photography as her chosen medium. • “I didn’t think of what I was doing as political,” she once said. “To me it was a way to make the best out of what I liked to do privately, which was to dress up.” • Cindy Sherman uses everyday found objects to dress up her characters, such as nails, wigs, makeup and clothes to recreate iconic snaps to signify confidence, sexuality and entertainment.

6. What does the artist Explore in their practice in general • “Sherman utilizes the camera and the various tools of the everyday cinema, such as makeup, costumes, and stage scenery, to recreate common illusions, or iconic "snapshots," that signify various concepts of public celebrity, self-confidence, sexual adventure, entertainment, and other socially sanctioned, existential conditions.”-MOMA • Her images suggest how identity is often an unstable compromise between how social life dictates us and our own personal intention. • Her work has always been linked to feminism as many of her pictures call attention to the objectification of women in the media as well as considering common stereotypes and cultural assumptions, including political satire, caricature, the graphic novel, pulp fiction, stand-up comedy and more

7. What influences Of other artists can be seen in this work? • Growing up, Sherman’s parents had a “lack of artistic interest” and Sherman felt she didn’t have “any concept of what was going on in the art world”1 until college. Despite this, in her childhood home there was a copy of a book1 featuring some of the most beautiful paintings in history, including works by Dali and Picasso, which must have influenced her interest in painting. • She began painting in her first year of art college, however she quickly gave it up in favour of photography. Sherman has said that she felt that “…there was nothing more to say [through painting]. I was meticulously copying other art and then I realized I could just use a camera and put my time into an idea instead.”1 • Her photography has been inspired not so much by other artists, but by the “collective fantasy” and the “social construction of glamour” that fuels US capitalism.

9. Political, social, historical and religious influences are shown One of the earliest works, a series called “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-80), features pictures of her playing stereotypically female roles – including a housewife, a woman in distress, a prostitute, and a dancer. There is a distinct 1950s Hollywood aesthetic in these photographs; Sherman wears wigs, hats, clothes unlike her own, and make-up. In the 1990s, Sherman’s work returned to the realm of ironic commentary on female stereotypes. She began using such things as mannequins and savaged doll parts, which again reflect themes such as violence and artificiality, as well as decay and sexual nausea. In 1997 she directed the dark comedic film “Office Killer.” In this decade she again achieved a sense of enigma and ambiguity with her art. “Sherman returned to ironic commentary upon clichéd female identities in the 1990s, introducing mannequins Two years later she exhibited disturbing images of savaged dolls and doll parts that explored her interest in juxtaposing violence and artificiality.

10. For example: • Intended by the artist to shock the unsuspecting viewer, the Sex Pictures series features anatomical dolls arranged in compromising positions. And just like all of her photographs they are untitled, leaving it ambiguous- almost allowing the audience to title them. • Set clearly apart from actual pornography, the photograph cruelly comments on the greater dehumanization of women in life, as well as in art since time is immemorial. • Her space is claustrophobic, the body (being the focal point of the photograph) is a little more than a tool of raw desire, while the accoutrements of "beauty," such as hairbrush, skimpy panties, and the like, are strewn haphazardly around her. The effect is something that neither a medical investigation nor a political speech could convey with such vivid precision. Sherman suddenly "makes strange" the everyday, or the familiar, in ways that suggest we often trod through our lives while sleepwalking. • Sex pictures despite their title are not sexy and do not aim to seduce for they are supposed to disgust and shock its audience. Cindy Sherman Untitled #170 1987 Chromogenic colour print 179.1 x 120.7 cm “Sex Pictures” Series

11. Our Thoughts on her work? • Particularly in her earlier work, Sherman creates images that can resonate with most members of western society, despite their enigmatic nature, due to their (albeit superficial) Hollywood aesthetic. Though this is the very thing the photos criticize and highlight, many people are subconsciously familiar with the way she appears in them – perhaps this very reaction of the audience to these photographs is part of her criticism; part of her art.