Here’s another one on the art world. (This by recommendation from Oli.) Should an artist like this really be considered a philanthropist? How much can his art really help those in whose neighborhoods he installs his works? Is there a certain mystique about being outside the norm (or even outside the law) which adds to his popularity? Does all genuine art, in fact, come from outsiders? This article is fairly short and does not give a lot of information about the artist and his work, so you may want to do a bit more research to comment on this…
Last year, when walking around the Seine River, no one could have missed “the art” that has enriched banks of the river. The women’s eyes staring at you while you walk around definitely arouse variety of feelings in passers-by. Some even found a connection with the show Big Brother and assigned the art a name Big sister is watching you. Personally, as I go in for photography lately, I found the whole idea fascinating and it made me do a research when I came back home. From what I found I would refer to J R as ambitious, philanthropic, aware of the current issues in the world, fearless and yet provocative.
ReplyDeleteHis whole career started when he, as 17 years old, found an old camera in the Paris subway. Starting shooting underground and dark areas his work resulted in huge campaigns throughout the whole world several years later. One of his main concerns is that he should not be sponsored by companies as he does not will to advertise their products but the work and object itself “If there’s one thing I’ve always taken care of with my work, it’s that it’s never an advertisement for anything other than the work itself and for the people it’s about — no ‘Coca-Cola presents,’. I really incline to this theory of presenting the art work as well as I admire him for the originality of creating, let’s say, new art trend by connecting graffiti with photography. Both of the trends are very popular nowadays, but I guess that not many of us actually had the similar idea to J R’s. Moreover, his exhibitions presenting another lives to which we are used to , which are exposed often on the most unusual places ( top of the trains, walls of the slum houses, stairs and many others), are illegal and that is why he successfully hides his identity from the world.
If I hadn’t made the research I wouldn’t agree with TED and their choice to award J R. Though, if I hadn’t known of him, I would say his work is just vandalism with no particular meaning in it, let alone I would not consider it philanthropic at all. But now, I respect him for his personal involvement in his projects that almost no one would be capable of doing without financial help of commercial companies. But he did it, he went from nowhere to the place where he will always be remembered. In fact, for his art some are willing to pay enormous amounts of money now. I hope that his future campaign for which he will probably use money from the TED award, as he claims and from this kind of awards it is always expected to use it for this kind of purpose, will be as successful as the others and more and more people would admire his originality and peculiarity.
I love and admire the art of photography and street art just as much. J R did a great job combining the two which made him immediately the center of my current interest. As I browsed through his projects and read several interviews with him, his captivating ideas put into pictures appealed to my senses and made me think more deeply about his intentions behind the projects. What message he wanted to spread by each fracture of the picture put on a building, bridge or stairs.
ReplyDeleteEach piece of photograph pictures a person or a part of them, mostly aiming at their facial expressions. Black and white and the huge size of photographs make it ideal to underline the message behind them. To help people in need, to make them unite, to show the real life of people in favelas and all this doesn’t serve only for people in these neighborhoods to experience art in the streets as they might never go to a gallery in their life. In my opinion even that would have more than honorable purpose itself, to enrich lives of people who are used to tough life based on every day’s survival. Not only he provides art for the people to look at but every time he sets his pictures in the environment, he actively includes them in the stage of putting up his photographs with him or just by themselves. By this he creates a unique experience for them and further enriches their lives.
However J R usually also makes his art useful for the people as he sometimes chooses waterproof materials and puts them on leaky roofs of huts therefore the art itself serves as a protection for the people. It can also show people how the time passes and how things change over time as it was for example done in Wrinkles of the city. Furthermore it catches the attention of the rest of the world, of the more fortunate ones who can provide help for the people in slums.
J R has many ideas in his head and wants to realize all of them and by them he satisfies both psychical and physical needs of people in slums and tries to help them by catching the attention of outer world. Thus he has every right to be called a philanthropist.
J R claims he doesn’t want to reveal his real name because it’s not his goal to be famous but I guess that exactly this fact makes media and people crazy about him because everyone wants to know who he is. Mostly now when he’s nominated for the TED prize for 2011 and no one still knows his identity. It might be a part of his strategy to catch attention but he seems humble and altruistic enough to do it just to get more sponsors for his work and not for himself as a person.