Untitled #96

These photographs were to be published as double-page spreads in Artforum, with their format inspired by the nudes found in the center pages of adult magazines. Here there is no sex appeal, but dreamy, fragile, in-love young women, like the one waiting for a phone call. Cindy Sherman traps the gaze, inviting us to scrutinize at an intimate distance. Her characters are either lying down or seen from above, on all fours in a posture of fear or flight, or crouching arms crossed, staring into the emptiness. The magazine finally rejected these images, fearing that they would be misinterpreted. The young woman lying under a black sheet was referred to as a rape victim, a hypothesis contradicted by the artist, who said that ather she had in mind a young woman disturbed by the sunrise after a night of partying. This misunderstanding speaks volumes about the multiple possible meanings of the artist’s works.