Clearly displaying the exaggerated manipulation of her body, she describes her face as a blank canvas to be worked on so as to create and unmask the social stereotypes circulated by the media, often revealing their decay and almost horrifying aspects in features verging on the grotesque.
The series of “portraits” in question investigates the female prototype in the role of the rich and powerful wife or middle-aged, upper-class American lady. The women portrayed are not modelled on real people and the settings – such as luxurious interiors, Renaissance courtyards and palaces – do not conjure up real places. Everything alludes to the traditional iconography of the prestige portrait of noble patrons of the arts or figures in high society: the haughty three-quarter pose of the body, the abundance of jewellery, the details of costly apparel and the strong symbolic and social overtones of the setting. The subjects stand out here, however, as caricature figures against deliberately artificial, digitally produced backdrops to create a strong effect of kitsch and bad taste.
After taking on the appearance of the subjects she wishes to represent and portray, Cindy Sherman photographs herself embodying the various kinds of female stereotype in costumes and fake sets recalling those of old photographs in fancy dress. The form of montage used enables the artist to highlight the artificiality of the figures and reveal the norms and conventions of public representation through which they symbolically express their power. The way that the real personality of the person portrayed seems to dissolve through reiterated presentation as a stereotype is a subject of no less importance than the artificiality, stage-setting and digital manipulation of the image.

Cindy Sherman (USA, 1959)

Cindy Sherman, one of the leading American artists and photographers, has often used sets in her work, which addresses themes and issues connected with identity and manipulation of the female image, such as the representation of women’s social and cultural role and the relationship between the real subject and its portrayal. While the artist is always her own model, the results are marked by a sense of irony and caricature, and anything but simple self-portraits.