Cindy Sherman – The Ultimate Shape-Shifter

The Ultimate Shape Shifter "We are all the product of what we want to project to the world." Cindy Sherman is that iconic artist whose work intrigues us because it starts to reveal itself, and then doesn't. The picture holds the promise of a story, drawing the viewer in to work through the layers. The projected and overt, the woman behind the dress-up, the play on identity, the invitation to gaze, and finally, the meaning of all of these, overlayed and coexisting. Perhaps my strongest influence and inspiration, somewhere in the raison d'etre of the @iconicwomenproject lies a deep if subterranean link to Cindy Sherman. A key figure of the 'Pictures Generation', a group of American artists whose work focused on social critique in an era of growing mass imagery in the early '80s, Cindy Sherman's work takes a profound look at identity, especially female, as something carefully fashioned for consumption and deception. Turning the camera on herself in a brave role-play as the ever-changing clown, seductress, damsel or aging society woman, she directly confronts the viewer's gaze in a game of make-believe and subjugation. Slipping into different identities she created became her coping mechanism in formative years, and a way to navigate an often harsh reality. Something that couldn't be more relevant today, playing out as we filter and Photoshop our way through everyday projections of ourselves.

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