Cindy Sherman’s photographic series, Untitled Film Stills, is an icon of postmodern art. The series is comprised of discrete single-frame narratives, which Sherman rendered in the visual vocabulary of mid-century cinematic publicity photography. One of the series’ most unifying features is its pervasive ambiguity, which Sherman has described as a conscious motivation behind the series. Despite the Stills’ continuous, international success, not every photograph in the series has merited uniform popularity, and some are largely absent from the greater circulation of popular and critical discourse. There is, in fact, significant variation in the circulation of individual Stills. I suggest that there is a spectrum of ambiguity in the photographs, and that this spectrum converges with the range of circulation. Within these spectra there are limits to the effectiveness of ambiguity. Therefore, the question that has governed my research is, “What is the threshold of ambiguity in Untitled Film Stills?” / text

[pt] Imagens contemporâneas (do sublime) procura refletir sobre o que é a imagem hoje. Esse estudo tem por objetivo desenvolver as noções de imagem e sublime no regime representativo da visualidade contemporânea. A imagem é entendida não mais como ponto de chegada visual de um enquadramento ótico que manifesta por projeção - na ordem da representação - uma essência objetiva atribuída por antecipação ao mundo revelado pelo Olhar de um Sujeito Universal e soberano; mas sim como um acontecimento, um evento, ponto de chegada de um processo, que remete ao jogo de toda uma série de mediações específicas denominado imagerie (produção de imagem). As mediações visuais, simultaneamente técnicas, semânticas e estéticas organizam a produção e a reprodução dos sujeitos dentro de uma cultura, redefinindo os conceitos de espaço, de tempo, de memória, de conhecimento, de fruição, o que implica o fim da epistemologia moderna e a necessidade de inventar novos modos de pensamento e, logo, de visualidade. Nesse contexto, a dupla modalidade do belo e do sublime kantianos vão ser tomados num processo de fundação da pós-modernidade, considerada como o estado presente da crise dos fundamentos modernos. O legado que a noção de sublime deixa para a estética relaciona-se ao reconhecimento da realidade como disponível para as experimentações múltiplas e provisórias, aproximando realidade e arte, tornando a realidade tão ficcional quanto a arte. A obra da artista plástica Cindy Sherman oferece um campo fértil na investigação das noções de imagem e sublime. Através do uso de técnica e suporte fotográfico, ela elabora não um objeto de crítica artística, mas antes se constitui em instância de crítica. Sherman constrói uma metalinguagem com a qual pode então operar no plano mito-gramático da arte. Ela compõe séries fotográficas com imagens de desgosto ou riso (mais do que de prazer), e o fato dessas sensações serem sustentadas como substituição do prazer estético orienta a ordem de experiência na cena contemporânea que se pretendeu investigar. / [en] The present study - Contemporary Images (of the Sublime) - intends to investigate the meaning of the image today. Its main purpose is to develop and broaden the understanding of such concepts as image and sublime in the representative regime of contemporary visuality. From the perspective of this study, the image is not a visual target of an optical framing manifested through projection, under a representational order, or an objective essence previously attributed to the world revealed by the Gaze of a Universal and Sovereign Subject; it is rather an event, the destination of a process related to a game that involves a series of specific mediations named imagerie (production of images). These visual mediations - which are simultaneously technical, semantic and aesthetic - organize the production and the reproduction of subjects within a culture, redefining the concepts of space, time, memory, knowledge and fruition, which implies the end of modern epistemology and the need to create new methods of thinking and, therefore, of visuality. In this context, the double modality of Kant`s concepts of Beauty and Sublime will be considered in the process of founding post-modernity, seen as the present state of the crisis of modern fundaments. The legacy left by the concept of the sublime to aesthetics is related to the recognition of reality as being available for multiple and provisional experiments, bringing reality and art together, making reality as fictional as art itself. The work of the artist Cindy Sherman offers a fertile field for investigation of the notions of image and the sublime. Through the use of photographic technique and support, instead of making objects for art critics, she constitutes herself as an instance of criticism. Sherman builds a metalanguage with which she can then operate with on the mythicogrammatical plane of art. She composes her photographic series with images of displeasure or laughter (rather than pleasure), and the fact that these sensations are presented as substitutes for aesthetic pleasure orients the order of experience in the contemporary scene, which this study intends to investigate.

Esta pesquisa tenciona investigar a produção artística de Cindy Sherman (1954-) e Stan Douglas (1960-), partindo da observação dos procedimentos por eles adotados para a produção de suas obras e de seu interesse comum pela natureza da cultura de massa. Pretende-se, ainda, evidenciar os tipos de convenções próprias dos suportes das mídias utilizados para suas imagens e o modus operandi que as mantêm. Grosso modo, entende-se por imagens subsidiadas pela mídia de massa aquelas que são expostas visando ao acesso em grande escala e de forma imediatista. / This study aims to shed light on the work of Cindy Sherman (1954-) and Stan Douglas (1960-), and proposes as its start-point not only the procedures that have been used by both of the artists in their creative process, but also the interest they have demonstrated in the mass culture as a subject for their work. In addiction to that, we intend to evince the type of conventions specific to the media in relation to its images and their modus operandi. By and large, it is well known that the repertoire of images subsidized by mass media correspond to those exposed in order to provide immediate access and in large scale.

Esta pesquisa tenciona investigar a produção artística de Cindy Sherman (1954-) e Stan Douglas (1960-), partindo da observação dos procedimentos por eles adotados para a produção de suas obras e de seu interesse comum pela natureza da cultura de massa. Pretende-se, ainda, evidenciar os tipos de convenções próprias dos suportes das mídias utilizados para suas imagens e o modus operandi que as mantêm. Grosso modo, entende-se por imagens subsidiadas pela mídia de massa aquelas que são expostas visando ao acesso em grande escala e de forma imediatista. / This study aims to shed light on the work of Cindy Sherman (1954-) and Stan Douglas (1960-), and proposes as its start-point not only the procedures that have been used by both of the artists in their creative process, but also the interest they have demonstrated in the mass culture as a subject for their work. In addiction to that, we intend to evince the type of conventions specific to the media in relation to its images and their modus operandi. By and large, it is well known that the repertoire of images subsidized by mass media correspond to those exposed in order to provide immediate access and in large scale.

Thesis (M.A. (History of Arts))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

In this dissertation two art works of two female artists, Cindy Sherman and Berni Searle, are analysed comparatively using a method developed in semiotics. The artworks of Sherman that are used in this dissertation forms part of her Untitled Film Stills series and the artworks of Searle that are discussed forms part of her Looking Back series. The artworks and artists are contextualised within the postmodernism and within the realm of performance art. The study focuses on and discusses the way in which these two artists depict identity in their artworks. In Sherman's artworks this identity is linked to a Western, white identity. In contrast with this, the identity that Searle depicts is linked to an African, coloured identity. The study is concluded by a comparative summary of the different identities Sherman and Searle represent in their artworks as well as the way in which they represent these identities. / Thesis (M.A. (History of Arts))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

In this dissertation two art works of two female artists, Cindy Sherman and Berni Searle, are analysed comparatively using a method developed in semiotics. The artworks of Sherman that are used in this dissertation forms part of her Untitled Film Stills series and the artworks of Searle that are discussed forms part of her Looking Back series. The artworks and artists are contextualised within the postmodernism and within the realm of performance art. The study focuses on and discusses the way in which these two artists depict identity in their artworks. In Sherman's artworks this identity is linked to a Western, white identity. In contrast with this, the identity that Searle depicts is linked to an African, coloured identity. The study is concluded by a comparative summary of the different identities Sherman and Searle represent in their artworks as well as the way in which they represent these identities. / Thesis (M.A. (History of Arts))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att jämföra Cindy Shermans och Francesca Woodmans sätt att arbeta med temat identitet och sätta detta i relation till ett didaktiskt perspektiv. Utifrån frågeställningarna: Vad finns det för likheter och skillnader mellan Cindy Shermans och Francesca Woodmans sätt att arbeta med identitet genom fotografi? och Hur kan man utifrån dessa fotografer arbeta med identitet i bildundervisningen? kommer en komparativ analys göras på fyra bilder. Två av Cindy Sherman och två av Francesca Woodman. Resultatet påvisar att Francesca Woodman arbetar med identitet utifrån ett modernistiskt synsätt där inre psykologiska processer och tillstånd uttrycks i fotografiska bilder. Cindy Sherman däremot arbetar med iscensättning av sociala roller och kulturella representationer utifrån ett postmodernistiskt perspektiv.

This essay examines Instagrams as platforms for displaying and promoting art, this by looking at two photo artists, Arvida Byström and Cindy Sherman who are active on Instagram to varying degrees. The essay goes through how their feed is structured and how they shape their feed to reflect their identity as artists. A formal and a semiotic analysis is done on their feeds and selected images from their feeds. The result of the study shows that Arvida Byström uses here instagram to promote her art while Cindy Sherman focus more on her everyday life and shows a more casual approach to Instagram.

This thesis examines a selection of eight photographs in the History Portraits series by American photographer, Cindy Sherman, produced from 1989 to 1990. The photographs are based on Renaissance paintings of biblical and secular women painted by old master artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Raphael. Sherman focused on the female types of Biblical mother and femme fatale, as well as wives and models. These types are defined in their relation to men and are depicted by men. In Sherman’s reinterpretations of their portraits, she retells the stories of these women in ways that reaffirm their independence and power that have been shrouded in a history told and controlled by men. With herself as her model, she altered aspects of the images, using the technique of caricature for humor as well as critique. Sherman subverts the idealization of the Renaissance portraits of women by exaggerating features and eliminating aspects of the original portraits to reassert the women’s individuality.