The Latest Cindy Sherman

Just before it closed at Sprüth Magers - London, I went to see the latest Cindy Sherman exhibition. I really like Cindy Sherman's work, particularly the untitled film stills and the centrefolds. While her work has varied (the clown portraits, for example), there seems to remain a lingering interest in the relationship to the past, questions of authenticity, and disparity, and these themes continue to resonate.

Giant murals, such as the image shown above, dominate the gallery walls, juxtaposing black-and-white landscapes with colour portraits (the artist as subject) which seem garish in comparison. The odd tension that arises from such a clash manipulates our sympathies; there is a strange nostalgic allure to the black-and-white backgrounds which show rural time-honoured scenes (despite their obvious digital design) while the figures appear crass, played up by the artificial excess of each costume. This artificiality is made even more uncanny by the deliberate inconsistencies - the ski boot on the sitting woman's left foot, the socks worn by the standing warrior.


The colour clash is quite fundamental to the aesthetic experience of these murals. I was struck by the difference in my reactions to the majority of the images, and the one shown below right in which the female figure is, unusually, also in black-and-white, complementing her surroundings. 

The harmony of figure and landscape in this photo contrast the uneasy tension of the others. And yet, having seen the others, the coloured figures showing up the constructed nature in a way that felt brash and confrontational for the viewer, I couldn't look at the solely black-and-white section in the same way. Sitting alongside these others, it too seemed to be shown up as somehow unnatural in this enigmatic play of meaning and signification.


I don't think the polemic of this new work is as clear as in other collections in Cindy Sherman's oeuvre, but there is a definite continuation of the play of performance, reality, and identity.