Cindy Sherman

This last Monday was the final day of the Cindy Sherman exhibit at the SFMOMA. I’ve been wanting to go for a few months now, but finally we hit a day that worked for all of us. If you’re not familiar with Cindy Sherman, she is an artist who explores identity through photography. She does the makeup, lighting, modeling, clothing, background, all of it. She is the photographer and the subject. The earliest works on display were from the 1970s, and the most current were very recent.

I really liked the exhibit. I liked how DIFFERENT all of these identities were, and yet how you could tell so much about the characters by the clothing, the hair, the body language, and the expression on their faces. How a person chooses to represent themselves to the world can tell us so much about them, so much of who they are, or at least, who they want you to think they are.

Ted liked the exhibit OK, and Maya was completely creeped out by it. There were some very strange pictures in there, so I can see that. After leaving the exhibit, we walked around the MOMA’s permanent collection, and I was struck by how many really different ways there are for an artist to express themselves.

I almost wish we had gone sooner, so I could go see it again.  Thank goodness for the internet, where you can do a search for her, and find most, perhaps all of her photos online.  Still, seeing them grouped by era and topic certainly gave the exhibit a cohesiveness that you won’t find online.

The exhibit is off to Minneapolis next, so if you find yourself in the area, consider checking it out.  There are some disturbing pictures, so think twice before bringing young ones.