American photographer Cindy Sherman is regarded by many to be one of the most influential and important artists in contemporary art. And when you see a large and diverse body of her work in the one place, as in the recently opened exhibition of Sherman’s work at the Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), it’s not hard to see why. Throughout her 40 year career, Sherman has cemented herself as one of the most intuitive and perceptive critics of contemporary society and its clichés and stereotypes. Taking on the multiple roles of model, photographer, hairdresser, make-up artist, and costume designer, Sherman uses prosthetics, wigs, makeup, props, and digital manipulation to transform herself into a vast range of different characters for her subversive portraits.In today’s photo obsessed, image saturated world, it’s even more difficult for contemporary photographers to create images that stand out from the crowd. Sherman’s work not only stands out from the crowd visually, it does so while exploring and interrogating the construction of identity as well as challenging the role and definition of photography and portraiture. “In all her photographs, Cindy Sherman expands on contemporary society’s fascination with aspiration, narcissism and the cult of celebrity, and explores the resulting emotional fragility,” explains Ellie Buttrose, QAGOMA’s Associate Curator of Contemporary International Art. “In an era obsessed with self-image, her work continues to influence generations of artists working in photography and video today.”“Cindy Sherman” at GOMA Brisbane is the New York-based artist’s first Australian solo exhibition in more than 15 years. The revealing showcase brings together more than 50 large-scale photographic works from six different series, all produced since the year 2000 when Sherman made her return as the model in her images after many years of using mannequins. In addition to works from the “head shots” 2000–02, “clowns” 2003–04, “society portraits” 2008, “Balenciaga” 2007–08, and “Chanel” 2010–2013 series, the exhibition also includes a 5 metre-tall installation of Sherman’s “mural” 2010 as well as images from an entirely new body of work featuring female characters reminiscent of those in 1920s Hollywood publicity photos.With a repertoire spanning gross exaggeration and subtle manipulation, Sherman creates portraits in which there is always something not quite right with the characters she portrays. It could be something as extreme as a blatantly obvious prosthetic enhancement or an absurdly excessive application of make-up, or it could be something as subtle as a slightly odd facial expression or pose. But in either case the result is the same: in the context of Sherman’s practice, the photographic portrait becomes a platform for the creation of windows into parallel worlds where the characters are affinities rather an identities, both strangely familiar and familiarly strange – characters that are neither archetype nor antitype, neither her nor the person that inspired them.As GOMA Brisbane’s beautifully hung and extremely well curated exhibition reveals, the genius of Sherman’s practice lies in her ability to compose images that occupy an indefinable and indescribable territory somewhere between fiction and reality – images that evoke while at the same time destabilize a particular cliché or stereotype. Her intuitively manipulated characters and carefully staged scenarios not only have the power to reset and reboot people’s attitudes and preconceptions of the social and cultural “types” that she explores and the process of identity creation that she critiques, but they also provide a potent platform for the development of fresh perspectives, new ideas, and a deeper understanding of those “types” and that process.“Cindy Sherman” is at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane until October 3, 2016
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