Cindy Sherman was born January 19, 1954, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In 1977, she began work on "Complete Untitled Film Stills," a series of 69 photographs and one of her best-known works; her black-and-white photographs challenged cultural stereotypes supported by the media. In the 1980s, Sherman used colour film and large prints, and focused more on lighting and facial expression. She returned to ironic commentary in the 1990s, directing the dark comedy Office Killer in 1997. Three years later, in 2000, she released a series of photographs of women with exaggerated attributes - a representation of social role-playing and sexual stereotypes.
Cindy's Work
This first image is a part of Cindy's portraiture project that was designed to challenge stereotypes. The image is a self portrait that shows Cindy wearing makeup and accessories that are made from sweets to portray a character. The character seems to show a clown represented with the stereotypical big, bold red lip and big fuzzy hair. The characters she creates are used to portray a torment of the stereotypes and how people are categorised into stereotypes. This exaggerated character visualises what people say about a certain stereotype and is try to prove that stereotypes are unrealistic and unfair on the people you are forcing the stereotype on.
This next character is a stereotype of women in general. The stereotype is a blonde, tanned model-like female who is an archetype of beauty in the media. Cindy has purposely over exaggerated this stereotype with the use of makeup and other clothing items in a similar manner to the previous image. All of her images portray the same message; To not stereotype people. She uses the stereotypes to fight the stereotypes. She does this by purposely over exaggerating the characters to bring to life what people think stereotypes actually are. From this we can visually see how ridiculous stereotype are.Inspiration
Cindy's work has inspired me through the message that she portrays within her art. I will use this message of fighting stereotypes within my own work. Even though I have no intention of using stereotypes to fight stereotypes, I will fight stereotypes but portraying a counter stereotype.
Overall, Cindy has not inspired me visually, despite the fact that I love her work, however instead inspired me contextually. Her work is very surreal and unique and I believe fights stereotype perfectly.
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