Cindy Sherman: Mannequins & Masks | Art21 "Exclusive"

Episode #087: Surveying some of the props shes used over the years, including masks and mannequin parts, artist Cindy Sherman demonstrates how she uses stand-ins to gauge the focus and composition of her images.

In self-reflexive photographs and films, Cindy Sherman invents myriad guises, metamorphosing from Hollywood starlet to clown to society matron. Often with the simplest of means—a camera, a wig, makeup, an outfit—Sherman fashions ambiguous but memorable characters that suggest complex lives lived out of frame. Shermans investigations have a compelling relationship to public images, from kitsch (film stills and centerfolds) to art history (Old Masters and Surrealism) to green-screen technology and the latest advances in digital photography.

Learn more about Cindy Sherman: http://www.art21.org/artists/cindy-sherman

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Joel Shapiro. Sound: Roger Phenix. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: Cindy Sherman.

Mannequins & Masks

I think the sausages from one of the sex pictures are here.

umm. I don't know.

Some of the leaves I have used in the background of some of the fairy-tales

and the rocks I've used in some of the fairy-tales.

This one was one that I made from-- I don't know what series you call it, but it was--

sort of, I guess part of those, desastery kind of masks that I did.

I think this one I used in-- that kiss one it was like upside down, I think it was with this head,

I think they were like that together and I took a picture like that, something like that.

And, oh, this one. Yeah, that one was actually, I forgot where she was, I was looking for her.

She was the one I used to use as this sort of filling for me, it's like the thing I focus on.

Basically I have this head on a tripod that I use to stand in for myself.

So then what I do is figure out where the camera is gonna be

and put a piece of tape down, and put tape down according to where the eye line is.

So then the tricky part is to, when I am actually shooting myself in the picture

to make sure that I am always gaging as closely as I can estimate where the focus is .

And it doesn't always work so, I mean sometimes I have to move it from side to side,

depending on which side I am favoring or trying to get closer, if I can't really tell.

But, yeah, it's just really important to know, just to look at myself,

figure out what's working and what's not.