Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades

EVENT DESCRIPTION

M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, is pleased to present Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades, the first exhibition to bring together the photographic works of Yasumasa Morimura (Japanese, born 1951) and Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954), who rethink identity through staged photographs across time, place, and culture. Both use masquerade as an artistic strategy to explore the relationships between identity, mass media, and history.

Masquerade is the act of manipulating one’s appearance and behaviour—through costumes, makeup, props, and body language—to temporarily become someone else. Since the 1970s and 1980s, Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman have both drawn inspiration from iconic figures and female archetypes in popular culture and art history, creating staged photographs that explore the construction of identities from their respective cultures and contexts.

Presented as part of the Pao-Watari Exhibition Series, Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman: Masquerades includes works from significant early series by each artist, tracing the origins of their practices of reimagining iconic imagery from the fields of art, cinema, and mass media.

The exhibition features four suites of images, which range from whimsical to darkly satirical, that question gender and cultural conventions. They invite us to think critically about the roles we play in life and the influences that make us who we are: 

Cindy Sherman’s The Centerfolds series (1981) includes a selection of seven photographs that were originally a commission by the contemporary art periodical Artforum. As a response to the magazine’s format, Sherman made a set of twelve images that resemble the centerfolds of mid-twentieth-century erotic magazines. The artist stages herself in various vulnerable poses, evoking fear, anxiety, and other heightened emotions. These high-angle, close-up shots were taken using exaggerated lighting and intense colour saturation. By taking control of the image, Sherman turns the portrayal of women as objects without agency on its head, raising difficult questions about the ethics of looking.

Yasumasa Morimura’s One Hundred M’s Self-portraits series (1993–2000) shows the artist masquerading as a wide range of celebrities and historical figures, from Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn to Madonna and even Cindy Sherman herself. Some photographs from the series show Morimura posing confidently on the streets of Japan, while others are set in his studio with props, creating an intriguing relationship between the figure and its surroundings. Morimura spent seven years on this series, a prolonged exploration of how to fully embody different personas. By also showing how he staged these scenes, he reveals how identity is constructed. This was a deeply personal investigation for Morimura, undertaken at a time when Japanese society was wrestling with the question of Western influence.

Yasumasa Morimura’s Doublonnage series (1987–1988) showcases the artist’s eccentric sense of humour as he impersonates famous cultural and historical figures. In these early works, he imitates cultural figures that were significant to him growing up in postwar Japan, when he was first learning about Western art history. These icons include Saint John the Baptist, whose beheading is a recurring subject in Renaissance painting; Rrose Sélavy, the female alter ego of French conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp; and modernist dancer-choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. ‘Doublonnage’ is a term Morimura coined to describe his masquerading. The original Japanese term alludes to a sense of foolish replication.

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills series (1977–1980) look like stills taken directly from black-and-white films at first glance. They are however invented scenes, inspired by film noir, Hollywood B movies, and European art-house cinema, all starring the artist herself. Sherman satirises the gendered tropes often found in such genres: the career woman, the femme fatale, the lonely housewife, the ingénue in the big city. She portrays these stereotypes with an uncanny irony that asks us to consider how women are represented in art and pop culture, an issue that is just as relevant today.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Yasumasa Morimura (Japanese, born 1951) is a leading contemporary artist whose conceptual practice encompasses photography, film, and performance. His emergence in the Osaka art scene coincided with the Kansai New Wave, when young artists in western Japan began experimenting with new media and vibrant forms of expression. Morimura superimposes himself onto important works from art history, iconic historical scenes, and famous figures from mass media. Through intricate props and digital manipulation, he explores themes of identity, authorship, and the complex relationships between Japan, Asia, and the West.

Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954) is one of the most influential artists of the past half century. She rose to prominence in the late 1970s with the Pictures Generation, a name given to a group of American artists known for their critical analysis of media culture. Sherman uses her photographic portraits to comment on stereotyped female identities, portraying herself as characters inspired by cinema, fashion magazines, art history, and, most recently, social media. Her early works satirise the gendered tropes of Hollywood and European films while revealing the mechanics of their production, while her latest series explores issues related to class and aging, utilising theatrical effects, photographic techniques, and digital technology.