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 ShermanI don't analyze what I'm doing. I've read convincing interpretations of my work, and sometimes I've noticed something that I wasn't aware of, but I think, at this point, people read into my work out of habit. Or I'm just very, very smart.
Cindy ShermanI didn't want to make 'high' art, I had no interest in using paint, I wanted to find something that anyone could relate to without knowing about contemporary art. I wasn't thinking in terms of precious prints or archival quality; I didn't want the work to seem like a commodity.
Cindy ShermanEarly in my career, a critic said that I needed to "explain" the irony in my work, suggesting that I needed to add text next to the images to help people understand what I was trying to say. At first I was dismayed that I wasn't making work with a clear enough message. That's when I realized that that was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do - that I wasn't responsible for a misinterpretation of my work, that there should be some ambiguity to it. They either got it, or they didn't.
Cindy ShermanSome people have told me they remember the film that one of my images is derived from, but in fact I had no film in mind at all.
Cindy ShermanI like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite. It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It's more challenging to look at the other side.
Cindy ShermanIn horror stories or in fairy tales, the fascination with the morbid is also, at least for me, a way to prepare for the unthinkableโฆ Thatโs why itโs very important for me to show the artificiality of it all, because the real horrors of the world are unmatchable, and theyโre too profound. Itโs much easier to absorb โ to be entertained by it, but also to let it affect you psychologically โ if itโs done in a fake, humorous, artificial way.
Cindy Sherman