Late founder of boom cosmetics cindy series#

In some of the more elaborate backgrounds, it appears as if a gigantic day-glo lollipop is melting behind the character, drawing out the more sinister psychological elements of the clown.

Late founder of boom cosmetics cindy series#

In the ‘clown’ series of 2002–04, she further explores the possibilities of digital backgrounds to expand the mood that is hinted at in the character’s expression and stance. In Untitled #408 and #409 2002, Sherman inserts a glowing light source behind the characters, marking the artist’s first foray into a digital technology. Rather, they are images of women desiring the unattainable: to be younger than they are, and more interesting, more famous, or more elegant than they will ever be. These B-grade actress’s head shots do not depict future stars. In Untitled #400 2000, unblended white powder around the eye catches the light, the one-shoulder dress reveals a strip of untanned skin: the very items that were intended to help this hopeful beauty look more natural - her foundation, her tan - are revealed as props in a costume. Each work acknowledges the props and labour behind the ‘look’. In Sherman’s ‘head shots’ series, the effort of this labour is evident in the badly applied make-up, ill-fitting wigs and clothes that are slightly misaligned. Once hidden behind the powder-room door, the work involved in ‘being a woman’ is now regularly referenced in the media. 1954 / Untitled #400 2000 / Chromogenic colour print / 93.3 x 66cm / Collection: Glenstone / Image courtesy: The artist and Metro Pictures, New York The artist’s carefully staged images - for which she sources the costumes, applies the makeup, and is the photographer - are profound critiques of contemporary identity. She is at pains to point out that these images are not self-portraits but portrayals of characters that we come into contact with in our daily lives and through the mass media. Since 2000, after using mannequins, dolls and props in her work for many years, Sherman has returned as the central model in her photographs. These works bring such follies to the fore, and the question of whether to resist that conditioning follows us beyond the gallery doors. We don’t laugh at her characters but instead empathise with them through our own experience of falling victim to social conditioning. Rather than assuming a position of superiority to the roles she plays, she enables audiences to identify with a make-up mishap or fashion faux pas. Throughout her illustrious career, Sherman has addressed the conditioning of white women’s roles in advanced capitalist societies, and the continuing popularity of her work is based on shared female experiences.

1 As an artist, Sherman gained recognition in the 1970s as part of a group of artists called the Pictures Generation - who included Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, Jack Goldstein, Robert Longo, David Salle and Richard Prince - who took a critical approach to mass media by mining imagery from high and low culture for their artworks. Translations of texts by French philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes and Julia Kristeva, who argued that identity was socially constructed, became widely available. She came of age when the counter culture in the United States was in crisis, as the utopian ideals of the flower power generation withered with the 1967 race riots, the seemingly endless war in Vietnam, and President Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Sherman is part of a generation who grew up with television overwhelmed with consumer product advertising. In a world awash with selfies and street fashion blogs, Cindy Sherman’s photographs suggest the artist’s prescience. The exhibition charts the artist’s ongoing commentary on social conditioning and her engagement with the construction of images and identity. The first major survey of American icon Cindy Sherman’s photographs since 2000 is now on show at GOMA.

1954 / Untitled #409 2002 / Chromogenic colour print / 137.2 x 91.4cm / Courtesy: The artist and Metro Pictures