‘The models have always been the least interesting thing about fashion.’ - Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #275 is both provocative and striking, exemplary of the artist’s relentless exploration of identity. Created ten years after her initial Fashion series, in which Sherman created a series of advertisements for designer Dianne Benson, the artist revisited this theme again in 1993. Commissioned to produce an editorial for Harper’s Bazaar, the artist photographed herself in a variety of wigs, stylised clothing and theatrical make up, replicating model-esque poses to challenge our consumption and perception of fashion imagery. Executed in the same year, Untitled #275’s protagonist gazes at the viewer, interrogating our interpretation of the female form and exposing the associations we draw from magazine images. Depicting the female body in repose, her central figure lays across the composition adorned in a coiffed black wig and luxurious blue loungewear with synthetic breasts exposed. With silken drapery and her bra flung to the side, the protagonist, Sherman herself, commands our gaze within this compelling image, the photograph imbued with chiaroscuro to suggest drama and intensity. Exhibited in 2003 at the artist’s solo exhibition at The Serpentine, London, Sherman’s work was most recently celebrated at her seminal retrospective held at the National Gallery of Art, London, during the summer of 2019.

Although the initial purpose of the Fashion series was primarily commercial, through these works Sherman sparks a social commentary on the objectification of the female body and the standards of beauty presented through attire. Each showing female models in awkward and uncomfortable poses, the central figures embody their ill-fitting costumes, their personalities interwoven with the lush fabrics embellishing their outfits. By appearing as the antithesis of the poised and graceful fashion world, the artist’s satirical interpretation continues to deconstruct the female identity and its place in the public sphere dominated by the male gaze. Sherman once stated 'We’re all products of what we want to project to the world. Even people who don’t spend any time, or think they don’t, on preparing themselves for the world out there – I think that ultimately, they have for their whole lives groomed themselves to be a certain way, to present a face to the world' (Cindy Sherman, quoted in Mark Stevens, ‘How I Made It: Cindy Sherman on Her ‘Untitled Film Stills,’ New York Magazine, 3 April 2008, online).