Throughout the thirty years Cindy Sherman (b. 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey) has worked as an artist, she has almost exclusively used herself as a model for her works. Sherman stages, directs and photographs herself in constantly changing disguises which are not, however, self-portraits. Each picture reflects a new identity taken from the mass media’s stereotyped views of women. She always works in series and never gives her works titles. Instead they are given a number. In the exhibition Sherman’s works are presented in large chronologically ordered series, each of which is held together
by a theme.

Sherman manipulates her own body by means of make-up, clothes and artificial body parts, and stages herself as various figures that she invents or re-invents, after which she photographs herself in her studio.
Sherman’s idiom varies from the amusing and humorous through the shrill to the brutal. Each series has its theme and several variations on the same idiom. Her whole idea with the stagings is to explore the cultural and social stereotypes as they are presented for example in magazines, advertisements, films and classic paintings.

In her staged works Sherman questions the male gaze at women; women too look at themselves from a male point of view, as the only point of view that exists in a patriarchal society. The repetition and variation take the form of a subtle analysis of female identity. The fantasies (individual as well as collective) and the forces unleashed by these fantasies, emerge through Sherman’s stagings as sometimes playful, sometimes sombre, repulsive and horrifying. Through the 250 works of the exhibition created in the period 1975-2005 one can trace the development of her work and gain an overview of her wealth of ideas, which seems to be boundless.

The first time Louisiana showed works by Cindy Sherman was in an exhibition in 1984, and immediately afterwards Louisiana acquired its first work – later followed by four more – all created in the period 1980-1985.

The exhibition Cindy Sherman – 30 years of staged photography has been organized by Jeu de paume,
Paris and produced in collaboration with Kunsthaus Bregenz, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin.

Further information about the exhibition Cindy Sherman – 30 years of staged photography is available
from either curator Helle Crenzien or the undersigned. Press photos can be downloaded from Louisiana’s press website: http://press.louisiana.dk. A password can be obtained by e-mail: press@louisiana.dk