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Useless 1974 Analysis

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1. Why is photography an appropriate medium for a feminist statement?

It gives the audience an ultimate insight into the world of a female during the time portrayed. It shows the clothing worn, the position they are stood in and the facial expressions they wear. It shows things as they are without too much distortion. For example in Tracy Moffet’s artwork “useless,1974” the artwork shows a woman wearing 70’s style clothing, stood in a sort of dominated nature , washing the lights of a car while wearing quite a resentful face. Accompanied by the caption “ Her father’s name for her was ‘useless’ ” we are able to see a woman in a period of great feminine oppression, forced to wash a car for a man who considers her to be useless. This kind of irony shows the insignificance thought to be surrounding women during this time.

2. What comments does sherman make about contemporary culture?

I believe Cindy Sherman through many of her artworks attempts to reveal the idea that our praised western society holds an extremely straight and boring view of what is considered beautiful. This is shown through the act of dressing herself up to appear profoundly different in each piece, often made to appear disturbing or uncomfortable . One could also say that this …show more content…

She often seems to make the comment that previous artists in western art history took the figure of humans too seriously. She also makes the comment that the view of beauty when some paintings were painted was quite different to the view of beauty now. For example shermans piece ‘untitled 216#’ is a re-interpretation of jean fouquet’s ‘virgin and child melun dipytch’ 1450. Looking at both artworks we can see the difference between the view of beauty during the time of Fouquet and the view of beauty during the time of sherman. Perhaps there is is also a comment of realism made by Sherman as fouquet’s figure is a fairly unrealistic depiction of a

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