With 'Untitled Film Stills' Aneta Grzeszykowska refers to one of the most important artists of the outgoing 20th century. Between 1977 and 1980, the American artist Cindy Sherman created her iconic 'Untitled Film Stills'. She photographed herself in sixty-nine different imaginary situations, reminiscent of scenes from black-and-white films of the 1950s and 60s. Changing her clothes, make-up and surroundings for each image, she playfully 'tries on' different feminine stereotypes in a self-assured game of roles and disguises. The series marked a milestone in the emancipation of female artists in the early 1980s.
In her series of the same name, made in 2006, Aneta Grzeszykowska re-stages the images, photographing herself in the imaginary scenarios. She creates free adaptations of the original settings, slips in and out of clothes, make-up and roles, and translates the black-and-white pictorial worlds of Cindy Sherman into colour photography. Seven photos from the series, examples of so-called 'Appropriation Art', are part of the collection. The term 'Appropriation Art' refers to the strategy of artists who take pre-existing material and simply use it for their own creative purposes. Back in the 1980s it was applied to Cindy Sherman’s work. Now, more than 25 years later, here it is again, exemplified in a very literal way in the work of this Polish artist.