Untitled #351 2000

Cindy Sherman made this photograph, Untitled #351, without indicating the exact time it was produced, using photography to explore identity, and that's kind of a never-ending process, isn't it? What strikes me here is the tension between the artifice and the vulnerability. Sherman's work often plays with the surface – the makeup, the costumes – but underneath there's always this raw, human presence. The slightly off-kilter wig, the hint of rosacea, and the direct gaze all feel deliberate. It’s like she is pushing us to see through the masks we all wear, and also acknowledging the sadness in the whole performance of being. For me, Sherman's work always brings to mind artists like Hannah Höch, who also used collage and photomontage to question the construction of female identity. But, where Höch was overtly political, Sherman is more subtle, more psychological. She is not telling us what to think, but inviting us to question everything we see.