Role Models was an interactive installation in the frame of COVEN BERLIN’s first exhibition FEMINIST CONQUEERORS: A PLAYGROUND, which took place from 21st till 29th of March at the gallery space Kleiner Salon.
Role Models aimed to delve into the visitors’ gender-based assumptions and preconceptions with a playful approach. They were able to design their own fictional characters with provided “genderless” descriptions and had the chance to encounter their (mostly unconscious) expectations on what people should look like based on apparently gender neutral parameters. With Role Models, Judy Mièl didn’t try to instruct the audience but to make them face the piece of the normative system they carry within and help them to free themselves from this burden.
COVEN BERLIN would like to present you the creative, colorful and diverse pieces created by the PLAYGROUND visitors for the installation:
Hello, I’m beautiful. I smell like pine trees and musk. I read my horoscope every week and trust the stars. My daughter looks just like me. I was born in Chile and still dream in Spanish.
Hello, I’m Caribbean-Canadian, but people always call me African-American. I met my best friend playing World of Warcraft. I love freshly-ironed clothes.
Hello, I’m an investment banker, and my husband is an artist. I secretly want him to draw erotic pictures of me, but I’m also afraid to see what they’d look like. My favorite color is bright red. I make 300,000 Euro a year.
Hello, I identify as white, but a lot of people don’t agree. I was born in Potsdam and have lived here my whole life. I have a crush on my math teacher and fantasize about losing my virginity to her… I really want to lose it. When I graduate, I want to study abroad in Japan.
Hello, I’m a cashier at McDonald’s. I hate my terrible skin. On Saturdays, I race motorcycles. My brother and parents still live in Iran, and I think about them whenever I lose control of my bike.
