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
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