Cindy Sherman's photographs are constructed scenarios
in which she appears as the protagonist. Assuming various culturally
stereotyped guises, she addresses issues of femininity, sexual identity,
voyeurism, and oppression in cultural representations. The
earliest works, resembling black-and-white film stills, present Hollywood-fabricated
heroines. Works from the early 1980s, in color and enlarged in scale,
become increasingly sinister, focusing on the pathology and victimization
of women as represented in film and the media. In her most recent
series, which centers on the tradition of protraiture, she exploits
the grotesquerie of wealthy and powerful patrons through the extensive
usee of prosttheses, stage makeup, and costumes (Day
69). (--Cf. John Berger's Ways of Seeing Chap 3.; Craig Owen,
"The Discourse of Others," The Anti-Aesthetic. Ed. Hal Foster.
pp. 65-90.
Untitile 1989
color photography, 63x42
Untitled 1989
color photograph, 87x56
Untitile 1989
color photography, 67.75x51.5
Untitile 1989
color photography, 57x41
Untitile 1989
color photography, 42.5x34
Day, Holliday T. Power: Its Myths and Mores
in American Art. 1961-1991.