Ted Prize 2011

Wrinkles in L.A.? Street Artist JR Brings His.

February 26, 2011 Artists, L.A.

French Street Artist JR is in Los Angeles for a few weeks to wheat-paste twenty or more murals from “Wrinkles in the City”, a black and white portrait series featuring colossal visages of the mature angels in this city.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

In a metropolis that famously avoids wrinkles, whether celluloid hero or not, plastering enormous creased and cratered kissers across architectural facades and rooftops is tantamount to vandalism. All of this seems perfect for the 28 year old former graffeur from Paris, who won the 2011 TED prize and who has previously installed portions of this project in Shanghai and Cartegena.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

Intended to be visible from streets and freeways, the series continues the Street Artists’ previous work; photographs that pay gentle tribute to the daily lives of citizens, elevating the “everyday” to an outsized scale normally reserved for celebrity and sales.

LA-based BSA collaborator and enormously talented photographer Todd Mazer has captured some of JR’s recent installations here exclusively for you.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR’s Movie, “Women Are Heroes” comes out 01.12

January 4, 2011 Africa, Brazil, NYC, Paris, Vietnam

Photo credit: © jr-art.net

Parisian Street Artist JR takes photos of people, creates giant billboard sized posters of them, and plasters them across roofs, trains, steps, river canals, barns, entire neighborhoods, you name it. All over the world.

“So what?,” Herschel at the corner grocery would say, “Coca Cola has been doing that for years and you don’t make a film about it.”

Trailer – Women Are Heroes – English Version
Uploaded by JR

In this case the man behind the camera is engaged with the stories of his subject, people he discovered as he traveled to places like Kenya, Phnonm Penh, and Rio de Janiero. As he talked with locals he was drawn to the simple and profound pain of women who have suffered the indignities of war, poverty, and loss. By engaging with the grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and children who comprise more than one half the worlds population but suffer wars’ cost at a much higher rate, JR conveys their humanity, their warmth, and sometimes their hope.

The TED Prize Winner for 2011, JR showed his movie “Women Are Heroes” at the Cannes Film Festival last year. In about 10 days, beginning in France, it will have wide release for the rest of us to see.

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