Cindy Sherman Review- National Portrait exhibition 2019.

  • Tatiana Yusuf

https://iveseenitall.home.blog/2019/09/23/cindy-sherman-exhibition-review-national-portrait-gallery/ CINDY SHERMAN EXHIBITION REVIEW – NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY art, photography, review (I know it is a tad late) Walking or shall I say, pushing through the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) my entrance to the gallery was a lot more stressful than the exhibition itself. I arrived around 1pm even though my ticket was for 4pm the assistant said it was fine. Lovely let’s get too it… The Exhibition Cindy Sherman, for me is one of the most important and influential female artist’s of the 21st century. Her work has challenged female stereotypes and plays with the body, the subconscious and western media. Alongside her images in this exhibition her work has been featured in several formats from famous images within her photography to SFX makeup and a walk through in her studio in New York. In Untitled A – E, 1975, a young Cindy Sherman and her strong facial expressions to create different characters of herself Walking around the exhibition it is clearly labelled in chronological order. We first come into contact with Sherman’s early work, around the late 1970s she experiments with B&W film and makeup. I found these pieces organic, not like a free range egg, but more a baby carrot rough and bumpy, but still equally crunchy and raw (enjoy the metaphor please). I see what you did girl. Yes working with different gender identities, yes breaking gender stereotypes. A young girl moving from the suburbs to find herself in NY, I feel you. At the same time it can be seen as very art school, but hey we’ve all been there. Moving on from her early work, the rooms take us through her diverse change in costume, appearance and play on storytelling and narrative. It is important to reiterate that although Sherman plays with these characters that may reflect her own emotions and self. Her work is something of a more broader context, taken from private and public collections the exhibition highlights that her work should be seen by all. Other critics have argued that her work is a sort of persona, the curator Paul Moorhouse explains: “(Cindy)Interrogates the illusions presented by modern culture in such a penetrating way – or scrutinises so tellingly the façades that people adopt. Probing the elusive connection between appearance and meaning, her work explores contemporary life – and with sharp observation exposes its deceptions.” Needless to say her work is a discussion of body image and morphing is something that caught my eye. As a woman in the art world, amongst every industry, we are forced to morphed into shapeshifters, blending or not blending in is up to us to decide. Sherman uses the idea of the male gaze as a sort of joke, the works laugh at you, smile at you, make you sad. But at the upmost they play on the facade of truth, a truth that in the western world femininity is something to be judged on the outside and the expectation women have to deal with within the everyday is still an issue. For an artist like Cindy Sherman her work plays on gender, the idea that it is constructed by social norms is most definitely a narrative in these works as she plays on body image and of what many struggle with everyday. Yet her images are a mixture of empowerment and sadness, the rich housewives for example are contrasted with images of clowns and a naked bodysuit with a sword. As I finish walking around the gallery the exhibition brings to mind the idea of breaking down the body. Sherman uses bits of old wig and dolls from models, to create what is in fact a ‘body’. It allows me to question the individuals ideals of image and how we have become so obsessed with our self-image, when really we are just bits attached to each other, and mobilizing are way through life. Many seem shocked and disgusted by some of the images that Sherman has presented, but in reality it is just her. The work brings out our insecurities towards the ‘disgust’ and questions our ability to work towards the idea of disgust. What is so wrong with feeling gross? Is it just how we were told? So because everyone says that a pig face is disgusting, does it mean that we have to feel that way? Of course not, but again this is another part of her work, questioning the ideals and challenging conventions of the diversity that is feminism. The down low Diversity of chronology : 5/5 Information about pieces: 3/5 WOW factor: 5/5 Breaking boundaries: 4/5 Overall: 5/5