Different Faces of Cindy Sherman

The series of 'Untitled Film Stills' by Cindy Sherman are that of pure genius. To use yourself as the model solves a multitude of problems on set, It is just you and the camera and the character you want to portray. The many different faces of Cindy Sherman leads me to question who she really is and the reasoning behind the series. The series ran over three years, 1977-1980 where she photographed herself in many different roles portraying a number of stereotype female roles which range from a giggling youngster and a untidy housewife to a model secretary and a scantily clad pin up. She manipulates every detail of her pictures. It is all staged and everything is planned. Sherman has said that dressing up helped her deal with depression and that dressing up helps you to become to character.

One of my favourites image from the series is Film Still 36, 1979. It is unlike many from the series, it is whispy and silhouetted making it a beautiful mystery. Who is the girl, what is she doing, what is she thinking or feeling? Many of her images make you want to ask the same questions but I find none are as beautiful as this one. The fact that Sherman's images are so mysterious you could ask which one is her? Which image has the real Cindy Sherman behind it and do any of the images portray an emotion of event that she is re-enacting?

I have used Sherman's work many times this year for research and inspiration and hope that, as this is my last blog for this uni project, you can too.

 

Modernism/ Post- Modernism

The term 'post-modern' is confusing. The word post means after yet in this context it is more like anti. Post-modernism leads us to believe that it is the movement after modernism when it is in fact running alongside modernism and reflects everything that isn't modern. 'It resists and obscures the sense of modernism' Post-Modernism, A Graphic Guide to Cutting Edge Thinking – Richard Appignanesie, Chris Garrett, 1995.




Modernism is based on social change and the rapid growth of technology with a passion for all things new and avant garde, where as post-modernism rejects all of these things and tries to create anarchy in any subject. Post-modernism is bout creating things for no other purpose than to create something yet everything created with modernism in mind is usable, it can update Facebook according to where you are and who you are with at any given time. It can record things from your telly even though you are miles away at work. You can read it on the go. You can drive it here and there yet anything post-modern is created to look pretty, to hang on a wall or to be forgotten about, because the freedom is yours.



Reading:

Post-Modernism, A Graphic Guide to Cutting Edge Thinking - R Appignanesie and C Garrett - 1995

All That is Solid Melts into Air - Marshall Berman -1982

http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0242.html

Art or Porn? Nobuyoshi Araki

So, I borrowed a book from the library because I recognised the artists name from another book. It had an interesting front cover so I checked it out. It was full of naked ladies, which is fine, I am no prude and I have a liking for the female form. I venture further into the book and I find close ups of vagina's. I start to question if I have actually mistakenly found some porn in the library, I continue to flick through and find pictures of a cat, and toy dinosaurs and flowers, by now I really am questioning the artist. I take it home anyway.

When I get home, I look at it in more detail. I notice how certain objects appear in more that one picture, a flower, ropes, a toy dinosaur etc. I think this could hint at a childish side, a side where he can express some level of immaturity. It is also clear to see that Araki is a very sexual person. His photographs border obscene and are highly erotic. He also has a fascination with the Japanese rope bondage called Kinbaku. However, not all of them are about naked ladies masturbating. There are some that show a different side to him. This image shows that he may be more attached to this female, as she is dressed and it is a head shot. This is one of my favourites in the book as I find this woman is beautiful without being degraded like some of the others in the book.

Here are some more images that show more of what I mean and some ladies you might recognise.

Nan Goldin

'People who are obsessed with remembering their experiences usually impose strict self– disciplines. I want to be uncontrolled and controlled at the same time. The dairy is my form of control over my life. It allows me to obsessively record every detail. It enables me to remember.' Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency- 1986

So, I bought this book for a project on intimate life, thinking I will probably look at the pictures and put it in the bookshelf among the hundreds of other books I've flicked through and forgotten and I almost did, until I started reading the text on the first page and within the paragraph I found this odd connection between Goldin and myself. Something I never realised about myself until I read the words as if they were coming from my own mouth. I cannot say I can compare myself or my work to the level of Goldin's or even to her personal experiences, but I can say that I have a new understanding of her and her work as something I can relate to and look to for inspiration.
 
 

 

One of the pictures in the book that strikes me most is on page 22, 'Self Portrait in Blue Bathroom, London 1980'. In all the other pictures she gets so up close and personal with the people she photographs, from people hugging to one man masturbating, yet in this image she seems physically and emotionally detached or even removed from it. Her tiny reflection in the corner of the mirror that is dwarfed by the blue walls it hangs on just makes me wonder why she might be hiding from view. Does she see herself in the background of her life, watching as opposed to being in the fore front, living it? For me this picture seems almost out of place in this book. Yet it is one of my favourites.

The Taylor Wessing Prize Feb 2011

When I went to the National Portrait Gallery back in Feburary to see the Taylor Wessing Prize, there were a few images that caught my eye. I had seen the winner posted on the BJP website and I wasn't overly impressed by it. to see a child hunting is not nice to see, especially when children are running around killing each other in the UK and this child is off hunting some animal that is probably near extinction.  Some of the runners up I also found a bit lacking, but I’m not a judge.

Not Even Magic Stopped the Genocide- David Graham was one of my favourites, not for its look as an image but because of the writing that sat beside it. I would have never guessed that is what the boy was about. I would have assumed some kid of a dirty estate, but not all pictures can paint a thousand words. The real story behind the image is of a boy called Rafiki, a street child from Rwanda who's father was a victim of genocide. He now lives in a charity run home where he can read Harry Potter books all he likes. The far reach of western culture into Rafikis live was what I think Graham wanted to show.

 

I also really like the image they used for most of the advertising campaigns. Wafa by Felix Carpio was my favourite. This stunningly simple look of this woman from Syria just captures my attention every time I see it, yet I don't fully understand why. Perhaps it is her daring look, and that she is looking right down the lens at the photographer in an almost challenging way. Caprio's series explores the gender roles in traditional communities in Syria.

 

I don't often enjoy gallery visits but I did enjoy this one and I will most likely be looking out for the next one!

Feminism

Modern western feminist movements can be divided into three waves, each of which describes different aspects of the same feminist issues throughout the last 100 years or so. The first wave was in the 19th and early 20th century which included the suffragettes working towards equal working and educational rights for women and children, resulting in women being allowed to study and work alongside men in the UK. The second wave happened post WWII in a time of renewed plenty. The 1960's through to the 1980's saw women seeking to change the inequalities in law and within the culture, and the roles of women in society, no longer chained to their kitchens. The third wave which is still currently going on, since the early 90's is seen as a continuation of the second wave where women are trying to right the failings of the second wave.

So, as a woman you would think I would find the subject easy to write about, however, I do not! There are certain points I agree with within feminism, some equal rights and that we should be respected equal to men, but my general opinion is that feminism, especially today's feminists are using it as an excuse for some women to dress and act like men. Grow some tits ladies and stop burning bra's! A woman has the right to say no when a man asks her to pose naked or to do explicit things, take responsibility for your own actions ladies, we wanted to be treated equally then act respectfully! There are some things you just have to accept will never change!