Cindy Sherman cannot be avoided - neither art-historically nor in terms of an enormously suggestive image power. For 40 years she photographed herself in countless roles and disguises. 

 

Next to Warhol, there is hardly any artist who has continued and (in the most literal sense) staged this identity politics with greater persistence than Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), who in her 40-year career has photographed herself in an abnormally large number of roles, disguises and setups – never as 'himself'. 

 

Sherman is a fantastic image maker – no doubt about it. The images work, many of them quite disturbing in all their artificiality. She set sail with her Untitled Filmstills (1977-1980) – a series of black and white photos in which she presents herself in scenes from non-existent, but certainly genre-typical, films in the vicinity of film noir, neorealism and Hitchcock. 

 

These film women are clearly cultural stereotypes, and it is a visible trace in Sherman's work to examine these social and cultural stereotypes as they are presented in films, magazines, fashion, advertisements – even in classical paintings. The uneasiness of Sherman Whether Sherman portrays himself as a clown, an amateur actor or a middle-aged upper-class woman, the staging itself is never something you see through – or believe in, for that matter. 

 

Rather, it stands there as the crust or shell that it is. Therein lies the unease at Sherman. I have always been very fascinated by Sherman. In this picture series I play with the reverse thought: what if Hitchcock had directed a film and it was Sherman who acted in it.