Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills

"Cindy Sherman (American, b. 1954) is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential artists in contemporary art. Throughout her career, she has presented a sustained, eloquent, and provocative exploration of the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation, drawn from the unlimited supply of images from movies, TV, magazines, the Internet, and art history."

As the quote above says, Cindy Sherman is most well known for her representation of contemporary identity which is why I wanted to research her within my project. Before recently I was looking a older representations of identity through portraiture but since have come into the idea of postmodernity, mass consumerism and it's effects on representation I thought Sherman would be interesting to look at. 

Cindy Sherman isn't one to stick to the 'rules' per say, she pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in consumer culture and broadened our minds to more varied ideologies based around representation.

Self Portraits

The self-portraits that Sherman did were revolutionary of the time, her use of props and setting played a key part in her representations. In the image below Sherman used a high contrast and lack of colour to make the image to dirty and gritty. The woman pictured in animal print clothing, cigarette in hand and tears rolling down her face don't help to paint the picture of the perfect housewife. 

Further more in the next image Sherman uses a pop of colour to help set the scene. Red is often a signifier of love or danger. This idea is contrasted with the strong shadows and the emotion on the woman's face in order to make her look uncomfortable. The shadow seems to be swallowing her, theoretically speaking and the way she is holding the sheet across her chest make her look vulnerable. In addition to this the subject is make direct eye contact with the camera making the consumer feel like the predator. In this way Cindy Sherman has managed to turn the technologies of the media around to make them look like the bad guys. 

Bus Riders

A different look at Sherman's work, still in keeping with the theme of representation lead me to look at her group titled 'Bus Riders'. The pieces include various people sat on a chair in front of a white wall and wooden floor. What I find most interesting about the images are the way that the subjects are presenting themselves. For example in the first image below, the lady looks quite vulnerable by the way her legs a together and she is holding her hands on her lap. The clothes she is wearing look to me like she as just go out of bed which contradicts the idea of why she would be at a bus stop. To me this then links back to the theme of my project, mental illness'. 

The man however in the picture below has a completely different ora about him. The way in which he has his legs spread apart, arms crossed against his chest and head bowed down suggest that he's bored, uncaring. 

Moreover, what I like about the images is the use of negative space, the white walls seem very daunting next to the photograph subjects. Even the shadows look as if they are being consumed by the whiteness of the walls. What's more is the relation of white to the dream-like state and surreal, this then links back to the idea that the shadows may be there own entity, suggesting multi personality disorders within the subjects.