JR Face to Face street art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

JR Face to Face street art - Essay Example JR Face to Face street art Starting his art career from the streets of Paris, the work of JR has often challenges the wide perceptions of images propagated by advertising channels and the media. He seeks to combine art and action dealing with commitment as well as identity and limits. He has been described differently by different people.   Fabrice Bousteau  introduces him as the figure already being regarded as Cartier-Bresson of the 21st century. He began his art career as a teenage graffiti artist who was pulled by the passion and interested in making a mark in the society rather than the interest of changing the world. His work then targeted conspicuous places like rooftops, subways, train and sidewalks and framed them so that they would not be confused with advertising. At the age of 17, he and his friends after finding a camera begun taking photographs and pated them on walls in a bid to send certain messages to the people. His biggest intention of doing art in a large scale was basically to influenc e people to change the world. The particularly aimed at changing the perceptions of the people and their thoughts in order to create a better society, which people are mindful of one another. Without any payment, JR and his friends started out in different cities around the world taking photographs and pasting them on building walls.In the period between 2004 and 2006, he created what is commonly referred to as the portrait of a generation, a project that included young people who were included in the housing program. In large format, he pasted these pictures in large format of walls of houses and commercial buildings in order to bring art closer to the people who do not visit the museums. Initially, it was deemed illegal, but was later legalized and when the City of Paris put his photos on buildings2. Project face to face was meant to bring the true identity of the true Israelis and Palestinians by putting photos of different people face to face. In eight cities of Palestine and Is rael, Marco and JR took the initiative of painting the pictures. While some of the people opposed the move especially the authorities, most of them were excited and supported their work. They volunteered to be photographed and allowed them to paste their pictures anywhere they wanted. In the project, they were constrained with resources. They had no money, and relied heavily on well-wishers3. They got two ladders, which were very old and rusty, a single camera and 20,000 feet of paper. The project however was a big success. They managed to photograph different kinds of people who did different kinds of work. From taxi drivers to cooks, carpenters and teachers, they sought to include all kinds of people in any profession. At one point they put two photographs of a Palestinian and an Israeli and asked people to tell the difference of who was who. By drawing reference to two photographs from the project, this paper will look at the face to face project, comparing them using their simil arities and differences and try to evaluate the impact they had on the people. More importantly however, it will seek to answer the question as to whether JR and his six friends succeeded in their mission. Were they successful in proving that what is perceived to be impossible could be possible? During the whole project, JR and his friends were dedicated to prove to the world that all people were similar regardless of