Weekly selfie 2: Vee Hughes

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still, 1978

 

Vee Hughes, Break, 2024

The Cindy Sherman Effect

1. “Sherman’s dazzling skill as a perpetual shape-shifter is perhaps her major contribution to contemporary art. A less conspicuous but equally important legacy involves the way her work has permanently blurred the line between fine art and photography.”

    a. This quote felt very accurate when reviewing Sherman’s work. The photos often looked like surrealist paintings. The idea that such sub-genres of art, which are characteristically only applied to fine arts, can be executed in photography is a captivating concept. 

2. “ Says Prager of Sherman’s influence, “She’s a woman commenting on women and so am I. I’m also attracted to the weird and bizarre, and she’s a master at that. I relate to her use of color, lighting, and the way her ‘scenes’ are mocked up in a way that is never too clean.”

    a. I think the concept of a woman commenting on women is such a unique and important concept. So much of art and society in general is focused around men commenting on women. This also continues to discuss the male and female gaze. I think it is very interesting how different the two are, how the male gaze in art focuses on sexualizing women while the female gaze tends to explore the life and complexities of women, which Cindy Sherman certainly successfully does in her art. 

New York Times | The Ugly Beauty of Cindy Sherman

1. “The photographs are not self-portraits, nor do they depict her fantasies. She uses herself because it’s simpler, she says. She can push herself harder than any model, and she can avoid small talk.”

    a. I found this quote interesting, especially because of the topic of our class and how I perceived its theme. I, along with others, likely feel that when you take or even paint or draw an image of yourself; you are the subject and main point. I enjoy making psychological self portraits and often put a lot of myself and my experiences into my art because of my art therapy background. The fact that Sherman’s photos have almost nothing to do with herself is a very interesting concept to think of. 

2. “I visited Sherman’s studio this summer, a wonderland of wigs, costumes and doll parts, the walls papered with the covers of old gore magazines and pictures of classic vamps.” 

    a. This quote made me think of a text I recently read in another class by David Sedaris about his sister Amy Sedaris. Amy’s whole career is based around acting and disguising herself into someone she is not. She too has tons of wigs and prosthetics and adopts entire personalities. In this class the theme is gender and we discussed how Amy feels no need to conform to society’s standards on how a woman must look and act and it immediately came to mind when reading about Sherman. They both seem to have broken free from the male gaze and misogyny which is insanely admirable.