Representation Of The Body And Deconstruction Of The Identity

Cindy Sherman(1954-),a contemporary American female photographer.Since 1975,driven by the "anti-traditional" motivation,she has taken herself as the subject of photography,and adopted the trademark "parody" reproduction method,through “Untitled Film Stills” and other photographic works to create strange and changeable female images.As a result,the20 th century witnessed a unique "Sherman style" photography art landscape in the vanguard aesthetic trend.Sherman’s photography challenged the hegemony of the "male gaze" and created a "disturbing" viewing effect.It has activated the re-examination of a series of meaningful modern visual art keywords,such as camouflage,performance,banter,struggle,subversion,irony,power,others,watching and narrative.As a kind of post-modern photography style,"Sherman Reproduction" is the research object of this paper.The core of this article is to try to answer,how to understand and position "Sherman Reproduction" in the history of western photography in the 20 th century.This paper is divided into four chapters,exploring in turn the artistic context of the emergence of "Sherman style reproduction",the artistic features of Sherman’s female photography,the reproduction content of the work,and the significance of its mirror image deconstruction.Through in-depth analysis from the surface to the inside,from "in the picture" to "behind the lens",this paper draws the following conclusions.The post-modern art trend in the second half of the 20 th century endowed Sherman’s photography with a "rebellious style".The theory of "the end of art" sounded the death knell of the universalism art law "He sees,so she is".The way of watching was questioned.Sherman was dissatisfied with the discipline of the "Eyes of Power".She resorted to subversive,replicative,and simulacrum avant-garde artistic techniques,and using the body as a "battlefield" to seek the innovation of photo visual effect and the expression of female’s resistance.Selfie and parody were typical features of “Sherman’s representation”.Selfie showed Sherman’s artistic confidence,while parody enabled Sherman,who was both a photographer and a subject,to experience and recreate various "women"."I" and "she",single and multiple,virtual and real,were combined with the combined force of modern mass media,role-playing fashion and the first concept of performance,to form a scattered and concentrated Sherman’s style,which given modern photography a "postmodern" new face.Change and changelessness were unified in Sherman’s lens.The female figures of different backgrounds and ages in the camera were changeable,from "good girls" to "suspects",from "perfect girls" in consumer culture to "fairy tales/disasters" and "historical portraits".What remained unchanged was the bizarre and embarrassing taste of life that all women invariably revealed in the photos,and the resulting impact on perception was completely different from the "consistent comfort" and "sufficiency of selfish desires" brought by traditional female-themed art.Sherman’s practice of constantly denying the "last beat" and seeking for visual breakthrough were also changeable.What remained constant was the feminist artist’s consistent playful technique and rebellious attitude.Sherman’s photographic works generated the meaning of "deconstruction of female identity" through the representation of diverse and grotesque female figures.The viewer can re-examine the truth of the female bodies,the charm and beauty of their sexuality,and the deeper,less visible subtleties of patriarchal domination in modern life.Sherman shaked the aesthetic cornerstone of "his center" in a way that subverted the classics,but what she showed us seems to be only a bizarre,vague and empty world of her.After deconstruction,where is the road? Beyond resistance and despair,what else can art do? Being broken,but not be restablished is the overall embarrassment of Sherman and the Western postmodern art that can be amplified by it.The way of equally viewing and the reinvention of the aesthetic dignity of the body are still on the way of exploration.