Untitled, 1989

For her edition Untitled (1989), Cindy Sherman uses the medium of an illuminated light box to heighten the tension between surface and transformation, beauty and grotesque. At first glance – when unlit – the image presents a faint glamour-shot-style portrait, in line with Sherman’s iconic masquerades. But once illuminated, a second transparency appears superimposed over the first: dozens of black ants crawl across the subject’s face and hair. The effect is at once surreal and unsettling, transforming the smiling, stylised figure into a tableau of decay and invasion. With characteristic wit and provocation, Sherman uses light and layered transparency to question ideals of femininity, perception, and bodily integrity –recasting the act of looking as an experience of rupture and confrontation.