The Morbid Imagination

“In horror stories or fairy tales, the fascination with the morbid is also, at least for me, a way to prepare for the unthinkable…That’s why it’s very important for me to show the artificiality of it all, because the horrors of the world are unwatchable, and they’re too profound. It’s much easier to absorb – to be entertained by it, but also to let it affect you psychologically – if it’s done in a fake, humorous, artificial way.” Cindy Sherman

That sounds like the motto of an exploitation filmaker, and Cindy Sherman did indeed make a horror movie once, but she is referring to the work she is more notable for: her photographs of herself in costume or make-up or dismembered doll parts combined with provocatively placed plastic genitals.

Artificiality,  or artifice, are certainly significant elements in Sherman’s work. Sherman first gained notice with black and white photos that suggested film stills from 1950s or 196os melodramas. One series was actually produced by photographing herself against rear projections: a form of hyper-artificiality.

Throughout the mid-period of her career in the 1980s, Sherman combined whimsy, grotesque costumes and make-up, and unatural lighting to produce a series of self-portraits meant to comment on or portray porn actesses, fairy tales, psuedo-historical figures, or women in a variety of distressed states.

As much as she has expressed a preference for artificiality, however, I feel Sherman’s most affecting works, many of which are her most disturbing, are those that cut closer to reality.

Untitled #153 (above) for example, could be a still from a crime scene; a corpse growing cold and stiff in a lonely field.

Untitled #156 (below) could be the same woman in the same field, shortly before her death, in the grip of madness.

And Untitled #92 (bottom), is suffused with dread and menace. Quite possibly the subject is recoiling from you, the viewer.

None register a bit of whimsy, all are arresting.

Artifice, humor, and obvious stylization all have their place in horror. As Sherman states, they can distance the viewer/reader from the underlying menace or dislocation, and make a work easier to digest. Especially in a 90 minute movie, anything that gives the audience a breather can help pace the strain of shock. But ultimately, the real power is drawn from that which makes us uneasy or uncomfortable.

I highly recommend checking out more of Sherman’s work, especially if they are part of an exhibition. Their power is magnified at scale, six feet or so.