It’s difficult to describe how moving I find JR’s work. It is lump in the throat, goose bumpingly full of humanity. Each time I see one of those huge posters in its community context I am just amazed at how he does it.

His latest project Wrinkles of the City is even more touching than the previous work, if that’s possible. Watch the video about the project in Los Angeles to find out what I mean.

Via designboom.

This is some thing I wrote, not so long ago, about JR for Ella Saltmarshe’s Introductor interview series, in response to her question: “What inspires you?”

THE INSPIRATION: There are so many extraordinarily exciting projects happening out there, I am inspired daily. But with respect to my “burning question” I think a brilliant realisation of local creativity with global reach is the work of French street artist JR. Addressing the theme of identity he uses large-scale photography of local people on an architectural scale in their communities. He works guerilla style, without permissions or corporate sponsorship. It’s fast, radical and provocative spatial intervention which creates powerful emotional reactions and a sense of pride in place.  He won the TED prize this year for his Inside Out  project, which scales up his personal work, allowing anyone in the world to transform their own identity into a community artwork by sending them enormous posters of their own portraits. The quote below is from his TED talk and resonates very clearly with me about the purpose of Creative Data.

“Art is not supposed to change the world, to change practical things, but to change perceptions. Art can change the way we see the world and create an energy. Actually the fact that art cannot change things, makes it a neutral place for exchanges and discussions and then enables you to change the world. What we see changes who we are. When we act together the whole thing is much more than the sum of the parts.”

JR

Fantastic winner of the 2011 TED Prize. Amazingly powerful image making with local people around the world in their communities. If Creative Data can come anywhere close to this, in terms of future landscapes and environment, it will have achieved what I set out to do. Help people see their own world in new ways.

Use Art To Turn The World Inside Out

Follow the Inside Out Project on Twitter - @InsideOutProj