GLORIOUSLY, CATASTROPHICALLY THEMSELVES

October 5, 2018 6:13 PM

For 40 years, Cindy Sherman, the great chameleon of our time, has created more than 500 photographs and almost as many distinct characters. She has transformed herself into vamps and victims, biker chicks and slasher babes, lonely-hearts and killer clowns. She has made herself over to look like a Goya painting and a lactating Madonna; a society matron with pink-rimmed eyes, radiant with contempt; an ashen-faced corpse, the lividity just setting in. John Waters has called her a “female female impersonator.” She has put it more simply, joking, “I collect breasts,” referring to the prosthetics she uses in her work.(SLNYT)
posted by octothorpe (5 comments total)

Oh and forgot to link to her instagram account.
posted by octothorpe at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this great article. sometime in the early aughts I saw a show of her works and other works inspired by her, and I've been fascinated ever since.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:26 PM on October 5, 2018

I love her work, thanks for sharing this!
posted by harriet vane at 6:10 AM on October 6, 2018

Almost 20 years ago I found myself in a museum in Sydney that was showing some of Cindy Sherman's work. At the time I knew nothing about her but there was a docent nearby giving a lecture/tour to some Australian senior citizens. I casually listened in hoping to understand the work better when I heard my favorite art patron comment.

Docent: What do you think she was attempting here? Is the character a man or a woman?

Elderly Australian woman in a loud, high pitched voice: Woman! Look at her booooooo-sum!

posted by mmascolino at 6:23 AM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

TIL Cindy Sherman has an Instagram account, and I'm really not sure how to feel about anything.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:50 AM on October 8, 2018 [1 favorite]