In Untitled #180, 1987, Cindy Sherman’s experimental approach to photography comes to the fore. Portraying an anthropomorphic creature glowing in luminescent yellows, pinks and blues, the lurid, dually-structured composition conveys an image more fantastical than real, investigating an overtly grotesque subject whilst preserving allusions to recognisable – though distortedly aggrandised – facial features. Pictured from a disturbingly close angle, these are additionally swathed in chemical colours reminiscent of blood or body fluids at the corner of the mouth, in the white of the eye and over locks of hair. This aesthetic of deterioration and waste is typical of Sherman’s Disaster series, which occupied her work from 1985 to 1989, in the aftermath of her widely celebrated Film Stills. The series not only signified a change in her work as she began to explore genres including horror films, fairy tales and the realm of the uncanny; it furthermore marked a departure from the artist’s use of her own likeness as the sole subject of her portraits. Throughout this period, Sherman utilised props alluding to the notion of decay, and veered from the cinematic to the theatrical, altogether conjuring themes of artificiality, the ominous, and the macabre.

With Untitled #180, Sherman employs a wide variety of make-up techniques and prostheses to create an incongruous – and physically eerie – representation of the human body. The result is a chillingly ambiguous figure standing halfway between a realistic monster and a synthetic doll. With its large, globulous eyes, its wide nose and mouth – both seemingly swollen beyond comfort – and its stiff, leather-like skin, the anonymous character encapsulates ‘something visually offensive but seductive, beautiful, and textural as well, to suck you in and then repulse you’ (Cindy Sherman, quoted in Calvin Tomkins, ‘Her Secret Identities’, The New Yorker, 15 May 2000, online). Pairing a frightening subject with a delectable mix of light and colour, Untitled #180 is an exceptional example of Sherman’s Disaster series, which demonstrates the breadth of her talent as a photographer and conceptual artist.