Detail

The work of American artist Cindy Sherman plays with the viewer, who in most cases takes the picture as an actual portrayal of reality. Contrary to this expectation, however, all her photographs are based on fictitious settings. With a few exceptions, Sherman herself is the protagonist in a variety of different situations, applying all kinds of disguise, make-up, and wigs. She thereby changes from picture to picture, now taking on the pose of a housewife, now that of vamp, and now a prostitute. Sherman says: “I need to be aware of what I’m going against when preparing each single figure, because behind the make-up and under the wigs, people will try to look for that certain common ground, for the recognizable. I try to get people to identify with the part of themselves rather than with me.” Sherman meticulously designs the fragmentary situation of her pictures. The aesthetic appeal of these images attracts our apparently naïve eye and makes us look out for direct connections to real life. It is, however, the mass media where she finds her motifs. In this way, Sherman plays a complex game between fiction and reality. By deliberately leaving many aspects undecided, she will not allow her work to be interpreted in a definite way.