Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Pandgt;With her Untitled Film Stills of the 1970s, Cindy Sherman became one of the era's most important and influential artists. Since then, her metamorphosing self-portraits and appropriation of genres can be seen as a continuous investigation of representation and its complicated relationship to photography. Sherman and her work are often discussed in terms of postmodern theories and ideas that were coming to increasing prominence as her career began-- feminism, subjectivity, mass media, new forms of mechanical reproduction, and even trauma, among others. Yet her refusal to acknowledge any of these themes as particular concerns raises questions about the relationships between the meanings projected upon a work of art and those produced by it. Cindy Sherman's art fascinates us in part because of its capacity to suggest--while at the same time slipping away from--so many possible readings.The discussions in these illustrated essays span Sherman's almost three-decade-long career, from her striking debut in the black-and-white Untitled Film Stills through her color photographs using back-projection, prosthetic body parts, and the ever-ingenuous modes of disguise and self-fashioning seen in such later series as Centerfolds, Fairy Tales, and Disasters. The essays--by such well-known critics as Douglas Crimp, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss--respond not only to Sherman's work but also to the arguments and postulations made about it, becoming part of the ongoing critical conversation about an artist of major significance.andlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
With her Untitled Film Stills of the 1970s, Cindy Sherman became one of the era's most important and influential artists. Since then, her metamorphosing self-portraits and appropriation of genres can be seen as a continuous investigation of representation and its complicated relationship to photography. Sherman and her work are often discussed in terms of postmodern theories and ideas that were coming to increasing prominence as her career began-- feminism, subjectivity, mass media, new forms of mechanical reproduction, and even trauma, among others. Yet her refusal to acknowledge any of these themes as particular concerns raises questions about the relationships between the meanings projected upon a work of art and those produced by it. Cindy Sherman's art fascinates us in part because of its capacity to suggest--while at the same time slipping away from--so many possible readings.The discussions in these illustrated essays span Sherman's almost three-decade-long career, from her striking debut in the black-and-white Untitled Film Stills through her color photographs using back-projection, prosthetic body parts, and the ever-ingenuous modes of disguise and self-fashioning seen in such later series as Centerfolds, Fairy Tales, and Disasters. The essays--by such well-known critics as Douglas Crimp, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss--respond not only to Sherman's work but also to the arguments and postulations made about it, becoming part of the ongoing critical conversation about an artist of major significance.
Synopsis
Critical essays on Cindy Sherman and one of contemporary art's most innovative bodies of work.
With her Untitled Film Stills of the 1970s, Cindy Sherman became one of the era's most important and influential artists. Since then, her metamorphosing self-portraits and appropriation of genres can be seen as a continuous investigation of representation and its complicated relationship to photography. Sherman and her work are often discussed in terms of postmodern theories and ideas that were coming to increasing prominence as her career began-- feminism, subjectivity, mass media, new forms of mechanical reproduction, and even trauma, among others. Yet her refusal to acknowledge any of these themes as particular concerns raises questions about the relationships between the meanings projected upon a work of art and those produced by it. Cindy Sherman's art fascinates us in part because of its capacity to suggest--while at the same time slipping away from--so many possible readings. The discussions in these illustrated essays span Sherman's almost three-decade-long career, from her striking debut in the black-and-white Untitled Film Stills through her color photographs using back-projection, prosthetic body parts, and the ever-ingenuous modes of disguise and self-fashioning seen in such later series as Centerfolds, Fairy Tales, and Disasters. The essays--by such well-known critics as Douglas Crimp, Hal Foster, and Rosalind Krauss--respond not only to Sherman's work but also to the arguments and postulations made about it, becoming part of the ongoing critical conversation about an artist of major significance.
Synopsis
Critical essays on Cindy Sherman and one of contemporary art's most innovative bodies of work.
Synopsis
One of the twentieth centuryand#8217;s most significant artists, Cindy Sherman has quietly uprooted conventional understandings of portraiture and art, questioning everything from identity to feminism. Critics around the world have taken Shermanand#8217;s photographs and extensively examined what lies underneath. However, little critical ink has been spilled on Shermanand#8217;s only film,and#160;
Office Killer, a piece that plays a significant role both in Shermanand#8217;s body of work and in American art in the late twentieth century. Dahlia Schweitzer breaks the silence with her trenchant analysis ofand#160;
Office Killerand#160;and explores the film on a variety of levels, combating head-on the art worldand#8217;s reluctance to discuss the movie and arguing instead that it is only through a close reading of the film that we can begin to appreciate the messages underlying all of Shermanand#8217;s work.
The first book on this neglected piece of an esteemed artistand#8217;s oeuvre,and#160;Cindy Shermanand#8217;s and#147;Office Killerand#8221;and#160;rescues the film from critical oblivion and situates it next to the artistand#8217;s other iconic works.
About the Author
Johanna Burton is on the faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and is a doctoral candidate in Princeton University's Department of Art and Archaeology.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Another Kind of Introduction
Why Office Killer Deserves Your Attention (And How It First Grabbed Mine)
Character Reference Guide
Office Killer Plot Synopsis
Part 2: Another kind of Art
Conception: In Art We Trust
Direction: Shermanand#8217;s March
Production: The Big Picture
Part 3: Another Kind of Entertainment
How to Look at Office Killer (And What I Missed the First Time)
Part 4: Another Kind of Commentary
Considerations: Cast, Costumes, and Characters
Conversations: Noir, Horror, and Comedy
Considerations: Disease, Technology, and the Workplace
Comparisons: Working Girl, Basic Instinct, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Part 5: Another Kind of Conclusion
How Office Killer was Absolutely Right about Everything (Yet Still Managed To Fail So Miserably)
Study Guides
Office Killers: Character Crib Notes
Textual Insanity: Relationships to Other Movies
Horrific Experiences: Interviews with Christine Vachon, James Schamus, Todd Thomas, and Tom Kalin
Film Credits and Cast List
Selected References
Notes