JR's TED Prize Video | JR Launches InsideOut Project

ArtTracker| Continuing with our participation in A Day of Peace (read Lisa’s essay) — posting no fashion or style or sensuality on the news page today — but only articles about our fragile world, we share global street artist JR’s Wednesday night video, as he accepted the $100,000 Ted prize for 2011 in Long Beach, Ca.

JR’s Acceptance Speech

I’ve followed JR for several years, sharing my impressions about his ‘Women Are Heroes’ projects, as he papers the world with larger-than-life images of the people who live in the world’s worst slums or in conflict zones like Gaza.

In Fall 2009, Paris invited JR to paper the city with his women heroes.

Besides my articles below, which include videos on JR’s projects, the NYTimes features the charming, articulate artist in last weekend’s Sunday Magazine cover story Supercolossal Street Art.

At the end of JR’s acceptance speech at TED, he announced his new project InsideOutProject, 

Anyone with Internet access can take pictures of faces with “strong” expressions and upload them to the website insideoutproject.net.

JR and his crew will convert the images into large black-and-white posters and send real world copies back to people, who are supposed to plaster them somewhere for all to see.

I have some ideas on how Anne of Carversville might be able to participate. The owner of my loft building has many walls around Philadelphia, which already hosts the largest community art project on buildings in America.

My understanding is that a grand online art gallery will host images of people all around the world — and where they put their art, the installations at a local level. It is amazing to see what one person — a street artist named JR  — can accomplish worldwide, bring art to people who have never had it.

The best story in the video — which is also the video footage in my article — is about Kibera, where JR stopped using paper and turn to linoleum to print his images. The images became roofs to hold rainwater at bay. And then they covered trains, as you see in the JR TED film and also my first article below.

I become very emotional when I write about JR because his images just grab me and shake me hard. There is such strength and resiliance in his images, and we can only imagine the impact they have on people at a community level. Enjoy. Anne

Photographers JR & Jonas Bendiksen | Artistry in Kibera, Kenya with video

Global Slums Photograffeur JR To Receive 2011 TED $100,000 Prize

In Paris All Eyes Are On ‘Women Are Heroes’ includes videos of JR