"!" [Hollywood Blues] July 2013 | Page 39

Both Prince and Sherman’s work yield further analogies with …Blues, insofar as their depictions of Americaness (to borrow Fredric Jameson’s term) point speci?cally to the constructedness and hyperrealism of late-capitalist, mainstream culture: whether through the deeply ironic, frontier-and-stetson hyper-masculinity of the stallion-riding Marlboro Man, or the cinematised, objecti?ed female body that Sherman’s poses recall and critique. Conversely, a shared component of these two photographic series usefully differ from …Blues in a mode characteristic of the postmodern text: unlike Easton’s piece, the particular form by which Sherman and Prince’s images are open to (re-)reading is identical with that of its ‘originals’ (if we read the former’s work in relation to ?lm stills, as the title of the series suggests). I have already observed that …Blues exposes a pivotal mode of the hyperreal’s perpetuation through dislocating the hyperreal from that mode. Thus, whilst the piece does not pursue the familiar postmodern strategy of occupying the cultural form that is itself, then, subject to rupture (at least in terms of the concerns of the present reading), the ubiquity of the mediatised is rendered stark through its displacement by liveness. And it is by and through t \?]?[?\??\??X?H?H?[?[X]X?[?H[]?\?X[]?X?Y\?????\?]?\?Z[??]\]Y\??[??H?X?Y ?\?YH???H]?Y??X??\?H???[?^ X\?Y\?\??\??Y HX??[??H?[XY?H?^[?H?[??X][????Y\??????Y?Y?H?]\?\?X?]X[]H?;? [ZX??[]?\?X[\X?[???\?\?\??8?&?Y?Yx?&K?H?\?H?[Z[X\?]H?H???]H\???Y\????] ??X[H??^H??Y??]YY][?\?[?\?Z\?? \?\X]Y[???][ZX??]\?[? ?H^[??[?]?H?]?????X?[?[?H] ?KJ\??X?\?H\?\?\??[??HYX\??YX\???[?H???[?^?[XZ[??;? \?[H?][?H?X[\??H?[?[X]X?[?]YY[??HY[X?\?ZY?[?????H?X?0?\??H?X???\??[\?X??\??\?H????X?Y[?8?&H?X[8?&N???X\?Y?\???YKH?[??H???[???]???[??[?\?^\?Y[??Y\?[??\???X[??K???[???YYH\???X[??H[? Y\?]?\??[[??[??H[H[H]YY[??B???B??