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Cindy Sherman at SFMOA in 2012


This is my first encounter with the works by one of my favorite contemporary artists Cindy Sherman. These photographic works are colossal in their scale.  The subject matter of her works as investigating the identity of the body and self and its different connotations within different contexts are addressed fantastically. And It reminds me of the works by the great tradition of portrait paintings from the Renaissance to the so-called post-modern age. Cindy's work is a good example of visual culture which I have been discussing in my studio and lecture practice at the department.  As a form of visual language, she blends it with the language of painting that marks a sign of post-modernity in art practices. 
Looking at the bodies, textures, and colors very closely (I would say it n Derridain's term; a close reading of material worlds ) these works generate the power of exhibiting the fishing of all these contemporary materials. It is represented in the way of the works framed and curated. 

My interpretation of her works is that it is not photographing. Rather she works in the language of painting and sculpture. She does this by changing and rechanging her skin(appearance) I would say in a Lacanian way, masks and body in performative aspects of gender. So there is no fixed meaning of the identity. but it's multiples. Photography is just a tool for her to encounter this visual trauma in the public. These works are taking positions beyond the photography as Holbein paintings of portraits are beyond the level of painting. 


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