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the mother of the deceased

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Artist(s): Cindy Sherman (Glen Ridge, NJ, January 19, 1954 - )
Title: the mother of the deceased from Murder Mystery People
Date: 1976-2000
Dimensions: 7 1/2 in. x 5 in. (19.05 cm x 12.7 cm)
Medium: gelatin silver print
Credit Line: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, purchased as the gift of Katherine D. and Stephen C. Sherrill (PA 1971, and P 2005, 2007, 2010), Sidney Knafel (PA 1948), Scott Mead (PA 1973), Michael Schmertzler (PA 1970), Drew Chin (PA 2000) and Emily D. Griset (PA 2000), and Amy Falls (PA 1982), and museum purchase, 2013.58.6

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This object is a member of the following groups (click any group name to view all objects in that group):

Exhibitions: The Body: Concealing and Revealing

Object Information

Throughout her career photographer Cindy Sherman has continuously made work that explores the construction of identity and challenges stereotypes of women. Although she photographs herself, her images are not self-portraits, but representations of personas she creates by transforming herself through clothing, makeup, wigs, prosthetics, and props. Appropriating imagery from popular culture, art history, film, and other visual sources, her staged “characters” have ranged from screen sirens to sinister clowns to aging socialites. Made while she was a student at Buffalo State College, Murder Mystery People forecasts the conceptual foundation upon which Sherman’s photographic oeuvre is built. In this series, “stock” characters from classic Hollywood mystery movies, such as the melodramatic starlet and the trench-coated detective, are meticulously staged—from clothing to pose and gesture to props. The artifice of these images is reinforced by the photographer’s cable release cord, visibly trailing off the picture’s edge, and an occasional prop discarded from a different character. In this early work Sherman is not interested in using masquerade to deceive the viewer, but rather engage them in the performance.

Exhibition History

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

In Character: Artists’ Role Play in Photography and Video, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/14/2012 - 7/31/2012
One Thing Leads to Another…Selections from the Collection , Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/30/2016 - 3/20/2016
The Body: Concealing and Revealing, Addison Gallery of American Art, 9/1/2018 - 3/31/2019

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