Kickstarter

WHAT IS...Another Kind of Monster: Cindy Sherman's Office Killer?

This book will be the first and only critical discussion of Sherman's single foray into film directing. Despite all the text written about Sherman's photography, no in-depth analysis of Office Killer has been published. It is a quirky and rich movie, with interesting contextual significance and a strongly compelling element within her body of work. It is only through a close reading of Office Killer that we can begin to appreciate the messages underlying all of Sherman’s work.

Sherman’s characters reflect the changes of mid-nineties America, when people were literally and metaphorically disappearing as a result of AIDS, technological developments, and shifts in the workplace. While this new relationship to the body was evolving then, it is all the more relevant now. Even when present, we are fundamentally absent, a core sense of isolation running through our lives as in Sherman’s work, connected more through computers and telephone networks than physical proximity.

Communication has become abstract and anonymous, when it happens at all, replaced with a pervasive sense of isolation. Sherman’s works are not simply about stereotypes or the feminine gaze, but about aesthetic explorations of image, gender, bodies, and public vs. private space. Office Killer sits right in the middle of that conversation.

WHO...Am I?

In retrospect, it was inevitable that I would write about Cindy Sherman’s film Office Killer. My focus on cinema was one reason I selected Wesleyan University. My interests in identity and cultural studies led me to Art Center’s graduate program in Criticism and Theory, a significant step in a journey that has included teaching classes in art and writing at two Los Angeles colleges, publishing fiction and essays, recording an album, touring Europe in a one-woman show, and exhibiting my photographs. My career as a performance artist emerged as a means of playing with multiple identities that I developed in my work. My various paths have contributed to my desire to combine film with academic theory, exploring life’s moments within a cultural narrative. This is what I will continue with my book on Office Killer.

WHY...Do I Need the Money?

I finally found a great publisher to publish my book on Cindy Sherman's film Office Killer, but I need to raise $3000 to subsidize the process. With academic publishing, books often don't get printed until production costs are covered first. Sometimes, this happens through pre-sales. Other times, this happens through university grants. But, for people like me, who don't work for endowed research universities, it typically comes from authors fronting the cash. Which is why I'm here today, offering this exciting opportunity to help accelerate the release of a book that's perfect for our times: interesting to popular AND intellectual audiences, about a subject that NO ONE else is covering, in homage to an artist who has transformed the way we look at each other and ourselves.

Thanks for reading,
Dahlia Schweitzer

PS. You can read an excerpt from the book here.