Untitled #169 [Disasters]

For the series Disasters (1986–1989), Sherman again draws from the deep-seated theatricality and motifs she had already used in the Fairy Tales. For the first time, however, the figures now clearly move into the background, show up only at the edge of the image or disappear entirely. At first glance, the photographs seem to be determined by an abstract, often enticing color, which becomes disgusting and repulsive on closer inspection, however, when the viewer recognizes that vast areas of these images, the battlefields of the Disasters, are covered with blood, feces and vomit. At the same time, the diversity of materials and level of detail in these images creates a powerful visual pull that – in conjunction with the overall composition – references a painterly concept of image.