Cindy Sherman is an artist from New York who has been working since the early 1980s. Her work involves inventing characters, making herself up as these characters and then photographing herself as these characters. Sometimes she used prosthetics and latex to turn herself into these characters. She rarely uses assistants and photographs herself with the help of mirrors in her studio. Throughout her career she has portrayed and explored an immense range of characters and visual genres. She developed her signature style in college where she studied photography. She was really into dressing up and started documenting her transformation into characters. Sherman says her work is rooted in her obsession with image as a teenager. Every time she makes herself up she says she really thinks about the character she is portraying and likes to pay attention to details. She has said she is very observant and notices subtle things about people that make them who they are.
Her first work as an artist was a set of 69 untitled black and white film stills (below). These were grainy shots of Cindy Sherman herself, portraying fictional female ingenues in made up films, in the style of B-movies foreign films and film noir. The shots are very convincing as film stills; the characters look familiar and the viewer believes they really have been taken from a film. I love the innocence, vulnerability and female sexuality of the characters she portrays in these stills. I love the first shot below; the camera angle makes the subject look important and the viewer insignificant. I also love the middle shot and how it crops the subject. I think this is a really interesting shot. The grainy quality was created by developing the film in chemicals that were too hot, which cracks the emulsion. Cindy Sherman said she wanted this effect because she "wanted them to look like cheap prints, not art".
Her next work was her iconic and controversial Centrefold series (below), inspired by the centre spreads found in fashion and pornographic magazines. They were shots of the artist herself portraying terrified, exposed and hunted women. The images were commissioned for the magazine Artforum but were instantly rejected due to the perceived pornographic nature of the images. Feminists argued that men could get aroused by the images but Sherman said the images were meant to be disturbing. Talking about one of her Centrefold images Sherman said "In content I wanted a man opening up the magazine suddenly look at it with an expectation of something lascivious and then feel like the violator that they would be, looking at this woman who is perhaps a victim ... I'm trying to make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation. I like the clear contrast of shadows and highlights in these shots.
Below is a selection of images from Cindy Sherman's career. They are just a small example of the diverse range of characters she has portrayed:
Below is a picture of the real Cindy Sherman (out of costume and character makeup):
Research Analysis:
In each transformation, Cindy Sherman is beyond recognition and is very believable in each of the characters she plays. Her work has shown me the immense possibilities of makeup and how we can change the face. As a makeup artist I am extremely interested in pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible with makeup. Her work also features a lot of prosthetics. Prosthetics are not typically used in fashion but artists such as Lady Gaga (below), who has worn prosthetic horns, are increasingly blurring the lines between art and fashion. Also fashion has always been about new and innovative ideas. Her work highlights how we are perceived based on our image and how easily we stereotype people. I am specialising in makeup and styling so my work relates very much to image. In my own work, I need the image of the subject to convey something specific. One outfit design I am developing explores form and exaggerates he shoulders and hips. In Sherman's work she also changes the form of the body, although she does this to look like a certain character and changes her form with prosthetics and latex. Although her work relates to mine, I am working in a different style. I want to create a fashion image, which presents new ideas, whereas she tries to portray specific existing stereotypes of women in society and in the media. Her shots are also head on, which I think is quite bland. I want to direct the photographer to take shots from different angles so I have a greater selection of perspectives to choose from.
Research Resources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/15/cindy-sherman-interview
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/being-cindy-sherman-the-new-york-artist-dresses-up-as-a-trophy-wife-to-explore-her-fear-of-ageing-and-botox-1669187.html
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/22/10469638-cindy-sherman-exposed-three-decades-of-a-master-masqueraders-photos-on-display
http://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/cindy-sherman-art-that-reveals-art-that-hides/
http://www.conchamayordomo.com/en/node/228
http://www.artelista.com/en/articles/2012/03/8824/moma-covers-cindy-sherman-career.html
http://artobserved.com/2011/02/ao-onsite-greenwich-ct-cindy-sherman-works-from-friends-of-the-bruce-museum-retrospective-at-the-bruce-museum-through-april-23rd-2011/
http://flavorwire.com/273653/10-famous-feminist-artworks?all=1
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/02/5340840/cindy-shermans-moma-retrospective-contains-many-guises-all-about-gaz
http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/sherman.shtml
http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/sherman.html
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1170
http://sherman.cindy.tripod.com/sherman3.htm
r
Please assist in taking the following poll:
ReplyDeletehttp://poll.pollcode.com/gffb2w