Untitled #87 (from the Centerfold series)

One of Cindy Sherman's most sought after and highly regarded bodies of work is her Centerfold series, ten images in total from 1981. The series was conceived when Sherman was asked by Artforum to create a portfolio of images for an artist's section in the magazine. Inspired by the horizontal format of the magazine when opened, she responded by referencing the popular photo spreads made famous in the pages of Playboy Magazine. Spread out across a double page, seam in the middle, Sherman reclaimed the format for her own aesthetic use. In their final form as art works, the images were printed roughly large enough to be life-size, super-sizing the traditional size of a centerfold. In each of the ten images, Sherman is a different young woman in some state of anxiety or dishevelment. Her cues from cinema and choice of dramatic stage lighting exacerbate the drama and tension of each. Waiting for the telephone to ring, laying on the floor holding a want ad vacantly starring into nothingness, awake in the middle of the night under black sheets-Sherman is all of these characters, alone and self-possessed, yet seemingly out of control of her own destinies. In Untitled #87, Sherman lies inert clutching an orange blanket in both frustration and for a sense of security. Like the Bruce Nauman neon work that so aptly expresses the full range of emotions--life, death, love, hate, pleasure, pain--so too does Cindy embody all these feelings as we see her rapt in this work. While the Centerfold series is a performance of wonting and emotion, it is also a performance of gender. The centerfold format was invented to give maximum exposure to the female form in the pages of girlie magazines and like a cameo on a necklace, was always the scene of where women were looked at and admired. By repossessing this space where woman were sexualized, Sherman performs the role of various women, but not one of them is a sex object.