Final Project Idea- Arianna G

 

Weekly Selfie 1/31

The Cindy Sherman Effect by Phoebe Hoban for ArtNews

“Her work has in some ways presaged the media age that we live in now and also absolutely responds to it”

“I think it has made me realize that we’ve all chosen who we are in terms of how we want the world to see us,”

Cindy Sherman's work is definitely relevant to our current media age where identity and self-representation are constantly being explored and redefined. Her use of self-portraiture to challenge societal constructs seems to be a criticism of the era of social media that is subject to a specific type of beauty standard.

We each have a hand in crafting our own image like picking out an outfit, we decide which parts of ourselves to show off and which to keep hidden. A lot of who we are is up to us to define. It’s a reminder that we are all playing a role in our personal stories that changes and continues as we go along.




New York Times | The Ugly Beauty of Cindy Sherman

“In fact, her images are so foundational to feminist art criticism, to notions of the “male gaze,” that it can be difficult to see them for themselves — they come to us encrusted with theory”

“Their vulnerability pains me — how badly they want to achieve some kind of glamor, how magnificently they miss the mark. A face “just floats there in front of you,” Marilynne Robinson once wrote. “It might as well be your soul, for all you can do to protect it.”

Sherman’s work is not just distorted pictures but also questions the way women have been portrayed and perceived through art and media. Shermans art often portrays the raw and sometimes uncomfortable efforts to attain a certain standard of beauty or lifestyle. It’s a powerful response to the vulnerabilities that come with our inner desire to be seen and admired.

Ugly Beaty - Cindy Sherman

Weekly Selfie 3 - Ana Mendieta - BinChao Yang

Ana Mendieta, Untitled: Silueta Series, 1976-1978

Recreated

Female Gaze: Art that Looks at What Women See | NYTIMES

“The female artists’ gaze is shaped by their lived experiences, which are different for women and men.”

- In life, men and women encounter different problems, solve problems in different ways, and look at problems in different ways. 

Ana Mendieta: Artist Who Pushed Boundaries | NYTimes

“She was always very dramatic, even as a child — and liked to push the envelope, to give people a start, to shock them a little bit. It was who she was, and she enjoyed it very much. And she laughed about it sometimes when people got freaked out.”

- Ana's personality shapes her artistic style, which gives her artwork a distinctly personal touch.

Ways of Seeing, Chapters 2+3

 “The way the painter has painted her includes her will and her intentions in the very structure of the image, in the very expression of her body and her face.”

- People are used to viewing women as beautiful exhibits and taking pleasure in doing so.

"But the essential way of seeing women, the essential use to which their images are put, has not changed. Women are depicted in a quite different way from men -- not because the feminine is different from the masculine -- but because the "ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him."

- People view men and women differently because stereotypes about men and women influence people's perceptions.

What is the Male Gaze?

- The Male Gaze refers to the perspective and representation of women in media and art, where the viewer's (assumed to be male) point of view is central. It often objectifies and sexualizes women for the pleasure of the male viewer.

What is the Female Gaze?

- The concept of the ‘female gaze’ could be seen as a response to feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s term, the ‘male gaze’, which represents the gaze of a heterosexual male viewer along with the male character and the male creator of the film.