Artist: Cindy Sherman

This fall at Hauser & Wirth London, Cindy Sherman debuts photographic works from her new Fabric Matrons series that explores identity as a continual process of construction over a lifetime.

Shaped by a visual vocabulary of elaborately draped fabrics, the protagonists in Cindy Sherman’s images appear to dissolve into their surroundings, heightening the tension between concealment and display to examine how women negotiate visibility in different phases of life. Through these staged scenes, the artist foregrounds the performance—and perception—of both femininity and beauty, probing the societal expectations and enduring pressure to fashion and maintain a public image over time.

The works on view mark a sophisticated evolution in her engagement with fashion imagery, with many pieces incorporating fabrics and other elements drawn from Chanel’s extensive archives. Sherman’s dialogue with the fashion house dates back to her Ominous Landscapes series (2010 – 2012), in which her characters wore archival garments and accessories. The new series on view in London embraces an intensified sense of theatrical styling, drawing on the visual codes of editorial photography to disrupt the glamour of fashion with deliberate artifice and fabrication.