Untitled 1976

This is an Untitled piece by Cindy Sherman, made using photography. You can really see Sherman’s hand, or rather, her eye, in the way she composes the shot. It's all about staging, and the process of constructing an image. Sherman uses black and white to flatten the image, turning the figure into something almost like a shadow. I am drawn to the area around the eyes. The dark makeup makes her eyes recede, yet her expression is so pronounced, so…theatrical. It makes you wonder, who is she trying to be? The flatness of the image, coupled with the performative aspect of the pose, brings to mind Warhol’s screen prints of celebrities. Sherman, like Warhol, is interested in surface and in the construction of identity. Like all great art, it embraces ambiguity and invites endless interpretations.