JR the Street Wallpaper Artist
June 17, 2009
JR is an artist from France, and his thing is to paste huge, striking portraits of people onto houses, museums, trains, viaducts…
He says of himself “I’m more a wallpaper guy than a photographer. The whole work is about pasting it in places where it makes sense.”
I love this work because it liberates art from the galleries; this art makes an effort to come into your space rather than the other way around. You don’t need to take a special trip to see it, and no entrance fee is required. It provokes and inspires more people than it ever could if it was safely stored in a venerable institution. This is street art of the best kind.
I strongly believe that our constructed landscape should be art – practical when needed but also beautiful, stimulating, even challenging. JR has proved that a little bold creativity and technical application can transform the regular into the spectacular. The function of the bricks and mortar in these houses have been elevated, so that they now exhilarate the mind as well as sheltering the body.
Take a look at JR’s website -> http://jr-art.net/
I first heard about him on this BBC special report -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8091890.stm
