a Play of selves act2 -17

This is one of the works Cindy Sherman did before coming to New York City. A Play of Selves was shown in Hallwalls in Buffalo while Cindy Sherman was finishing her last year or school. It was made by cutting herself out of photos. “This is the only work I’ve ever done that was autobiographical” says Cindy Sherman in the introduction of picture book A Play of Selves It really is, she uses these paper dolls of herself to tell a story with a very connected narrative. When I look at this work I am reminded of Andy Warhol in that we see the same characters a lot and Cindy Sherman’s face even more. I see this influence more in this work then the later Film Stills because even though we see her face over and over again we also see the same character over and over again, not that we don’t see his influence in Cindy Sherman’s later work I’m just saying I see more of it here. In this scene we see the female friend trying to exorcise all the demons, if you will, of the woman as she really is. Agony is holding her head with her hands and has a scarf over her hair, madness is kind of sitting with head resting on her cheek ,vanity has laid her mirror down and shut her eyes and desire is kind of crawling looking back maybe trying to help the others to escape. The way all these women are dressed up remind me of Fellini’s movie 8 1/2 in the scene where he sends one of the imaginary girls in his head upstairs to be forgotten and here again these women are in the head of the woman as she really is. The female friend is raising her hands in the air I don’t know if this is showing that she has some god like power or that she is simply giving up but both would be sending the same message of not being in control. I like this work because we see Cindy Sherman turning the camera on herself even more now before she even gets to New York City but she is doing it in a different way.
Sherman ,Cindy. A Play of Selves. New York: Hatje Cantz Verlag, Metro Pictures. 2007