Cindy Sherman presents her first solo exhibition in Shanghai
“I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear,” commented Sherman.
From November 7, 2018 to January 13, 2019, Cindy Sherman, an influential American and socially critical photographer and film director, showcases her 128 series of photographs and shooting props from different periods at Fosun Foundation, a non-profit organization located in the Bund Finance Center. Her works have traces Sherman’s occupation as a photographer since the 1970s, and presented various themes throughout her career and life. Sherman’s nine new pieces of works will be unveiled at this exhibition as well. She also painted two wallpapers for Fosun Foundation Shanghai before this exhibition.
Sherman was born in New Jersey and currently works in New York. Being one of the most representative artists in the 1970s, Sherman and other artists were known as the “Pictures Generation,” and received great recognition for their works. Her pieces have been showcased in Los Angeles, Munich, and Sydney.
Photographic portraiture is the most common element in her photographs. She uses herself as the model, along with tools related to cinema, including makeup, costumes, lightings, and stage sceneries, while creating her works. Sherman’s masterpieces, especially her “Untitled Film Still” series, accurately present concepts of female social roles, fashion, celebrity, and self-identity. For instance, Sherman depicted herself as a woman who represents the “coming of age” romance in the 1960s in the “Untitled Film Still #13” which was taken in 1978.
In the late 1970s, being influenced by the American Women’s Movement, she and other artists in her generation created works in an appropriate, iconic manner to inform the viewers the ways that mass media oppressed people’s individuality and personality. “Sherman’s singular talent and sensibility crystallized broadly held concerns in the culture as a whole, about the role of mass media in our lives, and about the ways in which we shape our personal identities,” said Peter Galassi, a former curator of photography.
Additionally, Sherman’s photographs also help the viewers to critique consumerism in the 20th century, portraying other themes such as sexual desire and domination which were clearly shown in her “Untitled, Sex Pictures” series.
For more information about Sherman’s exhibition, please visit https://en.damai.cn/event/tickets_164983/
Featured Image- “Cindy Sherman’s First Solo Exhibition in Shanghai” Courtesy of Cafa Art Info
by Selina Tai