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CINDY SHERMAN

WHAT?

WHO?

WHEN?

HOW?

WHERE?

WHY?

born New Jersey, USA,

January 19, 1954

1989

Untitled #213

color photograph
48 x 33 inches (121.9 x 83.8 cm)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Through her characters, Sherman embodies images from the public consciousness.  By dressing as characters from films, news-stills, and Renaissance paintings, Sherman infiltrates and destabilizes the familiar.  Her appearance in costume over the past few decades, has made the artist a household name.  Yet, the many ways in which Sherman portrays herself, has made her authentic identity hard to trace.  

 

This in itself may be the overarching statement of Sherman's career; that individual identity is the sum of the many parts that we all share.  

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Sherman has expressed in interviews her love of the grotesque and parody. Here is a quote from an edition of the Walker Centre Art Magazine: 

  

“I see humor in almost everything, in even the grotesque things, because I don’t want people to believe in them as if they were documentary that really does show true horror. I want them to be artificial, so you can laugh or giggle at them, as I do when I watch horror movies.”
 

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Watch: Cindy talk about her intentions and working process

Watch: Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art look at Cindy Sherman’s work 2000-2016

RESOURCES

Though Cindy Sherman is a trained photographer, the making of her art may best be described as a performative process.

Throughout her practice Sherman collects props, costumes, makeup and prosthetics, building up an inventory to draw upon when restaging a popular image.  

The final stage of the process is the documentation which takes the form of a framed photographic still.

 

Adapting to digital culture, Cindy Sherman has begun to publish her work through Instagram raising interesting questions about the 'value' of the finished artwork.  

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 'Untitled Film Still #53' 1980

Woman in Sun Dress, 2003

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