ABOUT THE WORK

Contemporary artist Keb Cerda has been known to synthesize meaning by combining pop-culture imagery and iconography with anthropological and academic records of native, rural and indigenous people. By portraying each contrasting element outside their traditional space and medium, Cerda effectively transforms each work’s accepted meaning and shows us that the line between fact and fiction is often blurred. The result is a jarring yet cohesive oeuvre that does not only enrich one aesthetically but philosophically and psychologically as well. In this piece, Cerda combines the imagery of common-folk with mainstream pop-culture figures such as Ultraman, Darth Vader, Robocop and a Power Ranger. The figures are all rendered in a sepia, giving them an almost documentarian feel, with vibrant red paint all over their head and upper torso. In doing so, Cerda seemingly questions the ethical and moral principles that guide our beloved pop-culture characters by relegating them into our own reality and timeline.