Kim Aaron Green // Photography
Role Models
2004
Appropriated digital video
Role Models
2004
Appropriated digital video
Role Models
2004
Appropriated digital video
Role Models
2004
Appropriated digital video
Role Models
2004
Appropriated digital video
Artist's Statement
I am not a star. I was never the blonde haired, blue-eyed football quarterback who got the girls, guns and glory. Fortunately or unfortunately, there are role models for those of us who coexist in the world of heroes. Role models for the supporting cast are provided for the number twos, the outsiders and the non-conformists.
The work in this show, Role Models, deals with how identity is shaped by popular culture and questions the role of the popular hero in this function. The piece references iconic television figures from each decade of my personal history. They are a reflection of who and what I wanted be at different points in time.
The challenge of this piece was to simultaneously find a way to fixate on individual characters and yet show their combined influence. By doing so, I offer the viewer the chance for a critical look at the concept of the heroic figure, and how this changes over time, both from my personal development and society's.
To distill out the essence of each role model, I removed every frame that they did not inhabit and removed all voices but their own. In this purified state their presence is not strengthened but reduced, when we remove the hero from his tale we remove his purpose.
By combining multiple role models in one presentation, we can begin to explore the universal. In airtime, each is more silent than not. Yet the combination results in a cacophony of voices; each asserting the right to be heard. The viewer's difficulty in distinguishing each is representational of society's inability to discriminate between individuals competing for our attention in our every day life.
This deconstruction/reconstruction leads to the questioning of hero figures and we must decipher whether or not there is anything admiral about their conduct at all, and ultimately to question our role as the consumers of popular culture. Is this who we are? Is this really who we want to be?
