Controlling Self-Representation: Engaging Feminist Frameworks Through Techniques of Appropriation and Questions of Identity, Agency, and Celebrity in the Artwork of Cindy Sherman, Nikki S. Lee, and Leah Schrager

Abstract

Examining the artwork of three women artists over the course of the last 50 years, this paper tracks how Cindy Sherman, Nikki S. Lee, and Leah Schrager have all (both consciously and unconsciously) undertaken feminist art practices through their engagement with historical feminist theory, most importantly the writings of Laura Mulvey, Teresa de Lauretis, and Judith Butler. Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, Lee's Projects series, and Schrager's Celebrity Project all allowed them to claim agency in their own representations, exposing the ways in which viewpoints and constructions of women have long been culturally mediated and produced by society at large. Their work explores themes of celebrity, repetition, identity, and appropriation, ultimately showcasing how the narrow ways in which we may be forced to view our gendered selves can be overcome.