“For Robin Kid, the cowboy is less a historical figure than one of the most successful cultural images produced by America.

It has come to embody freedom, individualism and masculinity, while also carrying associations of conquest, violence and nostalgia.

It is an image many of us were taught to admire as children, long before understanding the history behind it. Once that history becomes visible, however, the image does not simply disappear. The cowboy remains instantly recognisable, but what we see in him begins to change.

The cowboy is one example of something much larger: inherited images that are continually recycled through film, fashion, advertising, music, social media and now AI. These images are often inherited before the histories behind them.

Kid is interested in what happens when such images outlive the worlds that produced them: how an image can remain almost unchanged while its meaning continues to shift, and what function these images serve now.

— Robin Kid

Robin Kid – Permanent Display
📍 TEMPLON Paris, 30 rue Beaubourg
Through October 31, 2026