Showing posts with label JR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JR. Show all posts

Monday 2 August 2021

JR: Chronicles at Saatchi Gallery

 

JR: Chronicles
Saatchi Gallery 4 June - 3 October 2021
Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London, SW3 4RY
Booking essential: tickets


One question I always flounder with is “Who do you think the up and coming future stars in street art are?”, like I have any idea about art picking! The easier question is “Who has emerged?” and if there is one person who can’t be left out of that answer it is French artist JR. JR: Chronicles at the Saatchi Gallery is a comprehensive examination of JR’s very impressive back catalogue of art on the streets. Through a succession of rooms a large number of JR’s street projects are reprised, dissected and explained, the best part of a couple of hours is recommended.

Portrait Of A Generation inside demolished building
Portrait Of A Generation inside demolished building


JR’s artistic origins were as a not terribly stylish tagger in Paris who chances on a camera, takes some pretty cracking photos in fairly lairy sink estates dotted around Paris, print them out super cheap and pastes them up on the streets. Among the images is one of a young video maker surrounded by local “yoots”, that cameraman is now better known as the award winning director Ladj Ly and just to digress for a moment, watch Ladj Ly’s 2019 “Les Miserables”, it makes a superb companion to this exhibition as a semi fictional and unaffectionate look back to the environment that shaped JR’s early adult life.

JR: Ladj Ly at Les Bosquets
JR: Ladj Ly at Les Bosquets


If you haven’t spotted the jarring “trick of the eye” in the Les Bosquets photo, if you find it inexcusably intimidating well you’re not alone, JR tells us that when that photo was pasted on the side of the Tate Modern in 2008, the Director initially refused the image as he thought it was a gun as well. That was the point, JR was challenging your inclination to jump to racist conclusions.

JR: Tate Modern, 2008
JR: Tate Modern, 2008


Banksy’s first London exhibition was an un-authorised street take-over in 2001, JR adopted the same tactic in the same year. His “Expo 2 Rue”, translated as “Sidewalk Gallery”, involved guerrilla pasting his photos on building site hoardings and to add emphasis to his paste ups he sprayed picture frames around the paste ups linked together by straight lines. JR: Chronicles has a little humorous play with the form of JR’s Expo 2 Rue concept, a blown up photo of an Expo 2 Rue installation incorporates a video screen framed where the paste up was. “Tres droll” he probably wouldn’t say.

JR - Expo 2 Rue
JR - Expo 2 Rue


The scale of JR’s achievements transcend the boundary between street art and fine art, appealing as readily to art world snobs as to people who would never normally contemplate attending an art exhibition. This can perhaps be appreciated by splitting his endeavours into three parts, vaguely and inadequately summarised (my inadequacy, not the exhibition’s) as Idea, Execution and Documentation.

JR au Louvre et le Secret de la Grande Pyramid
JR au Louvre et le Secret de la Grande Pyramid


The ideas and concepts are the things that earn JR a place among the giants of contemporary art in the “proper” art world, and galleries like Saatchi. JR has completed a very impressive number of major projects in what is still a comparatively young career. The hallmark of them all is quality and originality, from his Expo 2 Rue at age 17 to Women Are Heroes and Gun Chronicles by way of Wrinkles Of the City, Portrait of A Generation and more, a mere 7 huge rooms at Saatchi’s Kings Road art palace is barely sufficient.

JR: Projects
JR: Projects


If JR has a secret cellar to which failures are condemned, surely there must be some, it is well hidden. The execution of them is undoubtedly thoroughly thought through, one of his charming trademarks is corralling local volunteer’s enthusiastic assistance in putting up his large paste up projects. For those who may have no idea how printed street art can be created on such magnificent scale various display cases, models and prop do great job of lifting the veil on those production secrets.

JR Work In Progress, Tate Modern 2008
JR Work In Progress, Tate Modern 2008


How do you print out the images? They are all made from continuous sheets of paper 36inches wide and in one of the films you see an architect’s printer spewing paper like a long string of spaghetti; how many sheets? In one of the vitrines are JR’s working images with the construction lines drawn by hand which divides the image into the stripes for printing and ultimately for putting the strips in the right order, a laden trolley laden demonstrates how many rolls of paper go into one of those epic paste ups.

JR: work in progress
JR: work in progress


There’s nothing quite so unpredictable as the public which coupled with JR’s “suck it and see” approach to putting up installations in locations where authorities are hostile (Israel, USA border) has given him a wealth of anecdotes which are well with tuning into, you can access that element online away from the gallery, treat it like a podcast. You might not find the “process” insights interesting, poor you, but scrutiny of those aspects can reveal secrets hidden in plain sight. The image of a tea party JR arranged to take place through the USA Mexico border fence is well known, JR explains in one of the videos that on the Mexican side they sit at a table; on the USA side the party was “guerrilla style” as the artist was denied permission so the party on the American side takes place not on a table but a printed canvas unfurled and passed through from the Mexican side. My chin dropped.

JR: Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the Border, Quadrichromie, Tecate, Mexico - USA, 2017
JR: Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the Border, Quadrichromie, Tecate, Mexico - USA, 2017


JR’s contact sheets from earlier analogue photography projects are displayed in several vitrines in various rooms. In the contact sheet of the images of Ladj Ly holding his camera like a gun the famous image is the very first one on the sheet, it captures the ominous energy of the kids surrounding Ladj, in the other photos the kids were basically posturing and with the absence of spontaneity the menace becomes cartoonised.

JR: Portrait Of A Generation Contact Sheet

JR: Portrait Of A Generation Contact Sheet


The third pillar of JR’s enterprise is the element that allows JR to produce stunning books and exhibitions. It’s the documentation, JR takes brilliant photographs of JR’s photography projects!

JR: Portrait Of A Generation
JR: Portrait Of A Generation


JR attributes his trademark hat and glasses to the early need to avoid being identified by a local mayor who wanted to sue him. He does however explain his art to camera in a comprehensive and articulate way but always in hat and glasses. For someone so preoccupied with anonymity shyness is not an issue!

JR and Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013
JR and Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013


JR does not sign his paste ups though sometimes the artist is unavoidably present at a microscopic scale, check the reflection in the subject’s eyes in, for example, the Nairobi train!

JR: Women Are Heroes, Kibera, Kenya JR: Women Are Heroes, Kibera, Kenya


JR’s projects are concerned with humanity, often illustrating the unnecessary impact that boundaries, borders and schisms in society have on humanity, or should that be the impact the unnecessary borders have? In essence he probes and highlights people’s impact on people.

JR: GIANTS, Kikito and the Border Patrol, Tecate, Mexico - USA 2017
JR: GIANTS, Kikito and the Border Patrol, Tecate, Mexico - USA 2017


The humanity becomes a teeming multitude in the Chronicles project, JR photographs up to a 1,000 people in basically the way they would like to be photographed then collages the individuals into a huge mural. There is a tendency for the impact to resemble a hyper realistic nightmare or disaster movie. Jr toys with your own interpretations of the evidence of your own eyes, is what you see really a violent disorder, or is it actually a community out playing and dancing?

JR: Chronicles de Clichy-Montfermeil (detail)
JR: Chronicles de Clichy-Montfermeil (detail)


Another thing that the show achieves which you can’t really replicate on a book or in a tiny screen is to impress with the scale and the level of detail in the augmented reality Chronicles. Download the JR – net app then point your phone at the relevant Chronicles mural causes a pointer to skip from person to person in the mural and through the magic of multi media you can hear that persons’ story as recorded by JR. Gun Chronicles occupies the whole of a large wall and incorporates 245 different viewpoints on the gun issue. JR avoids casting judgement, pro and anti Right To Carry folk are included and your reaction to the arguments tells you all you need to know about yourself rather than the issue. Good luck on completing the dive into the stories of all 1,128 citizens in The Chronicles Of New York City!

JR: Chronicles Of New York
JR: Chronicles Of New York


The opening of JR: Chronicles in June was accompanied by another iteration in several London locations of JR’s Inside Out project. This manifests as a travelling photo booth in a van modified to look like a polaroid camera where, after a long queue, your photo is taken and printed out on a large sheet and pasted on the ground like a massive outdoor version of a school yearbook if you went to that kind of school, not me!

JR Inside Out Project, Somerset House 2013
JR Inside Out Project, Somerset House 2013


The same van stars in JR’s film “Faces Places” made with the acclaimed French director the acclaimed late Agnes Varda (Click HERE for trailer)

The Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013
The Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013


That segues us nicely into an appreciation of how JR’s story is really like a street art fairytale. The promise of street art is that anyone can present their art to a public audience, you don’t need an art degree, critical approval or gallery acceptance, you create your own art world by placing your art on the streets. Direct from you the artist to the consumer, no middleman necessary. JR has basically parlayed this circumventing the art system system from untutored photography to hijacking wall space and from there to projects in Israel and Palestine meeting with military disapproval, to exhibitions in posh London galleries and films with the luminati of the film world. No formal art education or art world blessing required. Know someone else who did that?

JR: Face To Face Contact Sheet
JR: Face To Face Contact Sheet


JR: Face To Face, Separation Wall JR: Face To Face, Separation Wall


One more thing in a show where so much effort has gone into making the artist look effortlessly cool, the QR codes are functioning pieces of art. No doubt if I ask a young person I will find yet again I am ages...months behind the times.

QR Code Art (go on, test it)
QR Code Art (go on, test it)


The show dissects it’s subject into 7 themed zones, in each an idea and to a greater or lesser extent the process is revealed. The whole show is the manifestation of the third dimension of JR’s activity, the documentation, it really earns that title “Chronicles”.


Links:

JR’s Website

Photos of JR’s photos of JR’s Photos by Dave Stuart

Sunday 26 April 2020

Diggin In The Archives 4

Diggin into the archives bring back lots of mostly good memories but some of these artists have done so much brilliant street art that picking just one or two highlights is cruelly dismissive of their street opus. Another week of suspended animation has rolled past so here we go with the 4th collection of flashbacks trawled up from a long forgotten sector of the hard drive.

Anthony Lister did quite a number of stunning superheroes and faces over a number of years and a number of visits. It was quite easy to miss that Lister was parodying the Banksy in Cargo with this piece. Responding to the Banksy piece Lister declares himself over stencils and certainly now with the advent of muralism and greater tolerance of street art the old fashioned single layer stencil is nothing like as common as in the old days.

Antony Lister, 2012
Lister, 2012


Industrial revolution superhighway meets imaginative Sweet Toof vandalism. Although not terribly far away, the location was quite different to the usual Shoreditch street art beat.

Sweet Toof, 2010
Sweet Toof, Regents Canal, 2010


Louis Masai has done a phenomenal number of projects and art campaigning in support of species preservation and the environment generally. These two are the earliest Masai artworks I found on the streets, dating from late 2011. This blast from the past surfaced on the annual Earth Day last week. One planet, one love, one chance.


Masai & False, 2011
Masai featuring False


Masai, 2011
Masai


One of my lockdown distractions has been reading JR’s “Can Art Change The World”. The first time I came across his Inside Out project was this large mugshot on Redchurch St in 2011. The idea was that you sent JR a photo, he would print it and send it back to you and you had to paste it up on the wall. You may have had to send a photo of it in situ back to him. The self imortalising person in the photo is Ross T. The juxtaposition of Ross’ #insideout portrait with Ron English’s speech bubble was too good to be mere coincidence. Rock The Mouse was a shutter relic from a 2009 Mickey Mouse by Yan77 from Chrome and Black shop which used to be across the road.

Ross T in JR's Inside Out project, 2011
Ross T in JR's Inside Out, 2011


There are many artists whose style, ability and creativity have evolved dramatically over the years such as Airborne Mark, or The Pilot as he was known back in 2009. The first photo comes from a hoarding under the Westway where Garfield Hackett and Mutoid Waste staged One Foot In The Grove in 2009. Looking back through my archives One Foot In The Grove was a stunning event, I pass that location on the tube every time I go to QPR and never fail to peep into the space under the flyover and think of that show.

The Pilot, 2009
The Pilot, Acklam Rd, 2009


Airborne Mark was an OG mid 80s graffiti writer, this specimen of his graff was in Leake St back in 2008.

The Pilot, 2008
The Pilot, 2008


As a reminder of how far Airborne Mark has come, here's a gorgeous specimen of his origami folds painting style today.

Airborne Mark. 2019
Airborne Mark, Shoreditch, 2019


Sometimes it’s about the beauty, the drama or the politics of the street art; sometimes it’s about being in the right spot at the right moment. Monsieur Qui has visited Shoreditch a few times, leaving just a few tantalising illustrations to hunt down each. Love the art, love the bird nesting in the passerby’s topknot giving extravagant coiffure's to both art and life.

Monsieur Qui, 2011
Monsieur Qui, 2011


Saki and Bitches’ voluptuous temptresses appeared in some pretty eyecatching spots. Given Saki’s home country is Japan, the influence of Japanese art and use of Japanese subjects in Saki’s work, the appearance of “Tokyo Rising” alongside this Saki’s sturdy study of feminine charm was pure chance. Saki held down this elevated high street spot for several years.

Saki and Bitches, 2011
Saki and Bitches, 2011


I'll try to make time for daily blasts from the past this week but I'm making no promises ok. Check out the previous weekly compendiums: DITA 1, DITA 2 and DITA 3

Art credits and links are by each photo. All photos: Dave Stuart

Wednesday 11 November 2015

JR - Crossing

Lazarides Rathbone
16th Oct to 12th Nov 2015

All photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland


Ephemerality – a quality word we like to bandy around when generalising about the culture of street art. We tend to forget that also gallery shows don’t last forever so if you are reading this review after 7pm today, Graffoto apologises as it's now too late to catch this show. Which is a shame and I thank my lucky stars that at last I managed to visit the show and grab a quiet hour in there today, the last day.

JR is a street artist whose work is best described as “Big Art”. He has been doing art and a grand scale for many years including a lot of jaw-dropping traffic stopping work in London.

JR London
Cordy House - 2008


JR London
Cordy House - 2008


JR London
Old Truman Brewery, 2008


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Inside Out Project 2011 (audience participation event!)


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Inside Out - Somerset House 2013


JR London
Inside Out - Somerset House 2013


The “Crossing” referred to in this show refers to the journey undertaken by many immigrants to the USA, on arrival in Upper New York Bay the gaze of the Statue of Liberty (est 1886) bid welcome while Ellis Island served (1882 – 1954) as a credential checking facility for the 8 million mainly European migrants who passed through its registry room. According to Wikipedia, a mere 2% of the arrivals were repatriated whence they came for reasons of poverty, chronic ill health or “insanity”. Eight thousand died in the hospital facility established on Ellis Island and it is in those derelict ruins that JR filmed a very moving elegy to an immigrant’s passage, featuring Robert de Niro.

The exhibition has four aspects. The film at the top floor, is worth watching first as it is beautiful, the narration is poetic and it provides a lot on context for the Elis Island archival photographs.

Immigrants, nurses, travellers and welcoming party, JR has sought to represent all parties in that early 20th century human migration drama. The Ellis Island aspects of the static art divides into JR pasting Ellis Island archive photos onto beautifully weathered wood, and JR’s photographs of his paste ups in situ in the old hospital of the Ellis Island portraits.

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"Arriving on Ellis Island #6"; Ellis Island archive photo on wood - a welcome party?


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"Arriving on Ellis Island #3"; Ellis Island archive photo on wood


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Photo of paste up in situ, Ellis Island Hospital


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The fourth element resulted from JR’s 2014 collaboration with New York Ballet Company. Ballerinas photographed in urban and industrial contexts are fine but the real photographic gem is the portrait created by oversize half tone dots imprinted on ballet dancers costumes. At a reasonable distance the dancers fade but we gain an appreciation of a portrait of a pair of eyes in huge scale.

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Les Bosquets, Eye See You


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Now you see it


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Now you don't


Close up, the portrait disappears and the individuals emerge. It’s all about humanity, near or far.

This staged example of a ballet dancer dancing inside an opened container in a stack of empties is very impressive in its execution and brings one thought to mind – globalisation; the USA is the world’s greatest exporter of fresh air in empty containers, that’s trade imbalances for you. That may or more likely may not have been JR's point.

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"#198 Métal et Tutu"

JR’s exhibition prompts one great big question which is, supposedly one third of the USA population can trace roots to that half century of immigration so if we are inclined to romanticize that early 20th century migrant movement, then surely we must question our individual and big society response to the largest movement of war-displaced migrants in a generation now taking place across Europe.

Links:

JR: http://www.jr-art.net/

Ellis Island https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island

Lazarides: http://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/1313,jr-crossing

Friday 23 May 2008

Monday Update. . . .

Mighty Mo's Monkey is cropping up in an amazing array of places....well actually not that amazing as they are nearly always on top of a train bridge, but placement and execution are second to none, all done with a roller and a very long pole.

Parked my car IN FRONT of this billboard a few weeks ago, the wonders of Flcikr made me realise this was on the other side of it! A big fave for me of this style from the Burning Candy boys.

Eine Continuing to be bloody amazing, wonder if this will become a "wall" font?

Random weirdness in the shape of a photo with an astronaut called Ozzie and the text "To Donna, Love Bob". First one I found was left in situ for others to get a giggle from, then I found more and took one. Has the address www.todonnalovebob.org on it, which when visited prompts you to enter a unique code on the back of the photograph, asking for it to then be sent back to them with a promise of being contacted shortly.

I'll report back soon, if I'm still alive that is. . . . .

JR getting up at Truman Brewery, looking forward to seeing more of this at the Tate very soon.

And a half finished (or is it, I can never really tell with Conor) Harrington piece in progress on the entrance to the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane.