Girls' Night Out

Cindy Sherman's work was only a small part of the exhibit at the St. Louis Contemporary Museum of St. Louis. The most notable piece was Doll Clothes, a three-minute silent animated video from 1975, which was being exhibited for the first time. In the film, the artist "appears as a paper doll that has come to life and tries on clothes stored in their clear plastic sleeves" (Andrea Green, Curatorial Assistant). In the exhibition catalog, Author Catherine Morris states "Rather than make a film in which she actually appears, Sherman chooses to make a film about photographic representation of herself in arrested moments of movement. The removal of herself as subject, while retaining her body as a backdrop for an imaginary construction, characterizes that her mature work has begun." I personally saw that this video piece was a very distinct foreshadowing of all of her identity pieces to come. Cindy Sherman is a particularly salient example of an artist who latches onto a theme and explores it throughout their artistic career in various ways so that in the end, it is FULLY explored.

The rest of the exhibition space was filled with work by two generations of female artists working today in an exhibition entitled Girls' Night Out. The work was primarily photography and video. One particularly good artist/filmmaker to me was Salla Tykkä, who was born in 1973 and lives in Helsinki. Her photographic stills were not as stiking as a film of hers that was included in the exhibition. The film was called Thriller, and read like a bizarre dream of a pre-pubescent girl. There is gazing in windows and gazing out of windows. There is a man searching for the girl, and in the end, leaving her alone in her bed. At one point, the girl finds a gun while chasing after the man, and shoots a sheep with it, while another girl burns brush outside the original house. The setting is a forested area after rain and on a cloudy day. Throughout the short film, the theme song from the movie Halloween is playing. Overall, the film is a disconcerting exploration of the themes of "coming of age," or "loss of image" from a clear, albeit surrealistic, feminine perspective. Here is an article on Salla Tykkä in The Guardian by Adrian Searle for further reading.