JR%uFFFDs latest “The Wrinkles of the City” in downtown LA.
French street artist JR has achieved an incredible award as a recipient of the TED Prize 2011 for his work in changing perceptions through street art, most notably for his global “Women Are Heroes” project. He will be talking about his work at the prestigious TED conference in Long Beach, CA, tomorrow, Wednesday March 2, showcasing how his street art, using disposable wheat pasting techniques, encourages people to re-think public spaces and inspires new ideas for change.
Label Networks will be covering it tomorrow, so stay tuned for more information straight from the source. (Check out our feature on JR here regarding his “Women Are Heroes” campaign and our images from Paris.)
While in town, JR siting’s have been everywhere featuring his new “The Wrinkles of the City” project, with much artwork focused near our office loft in downtown Los Angeles.
JR on the Bristol Hotel flashing the symbol for “Westside.” We only know this too well, coming from the Eastside of LA.
Wrinkles of the City is a world-scale project aimed to be presented in various cities around the world where human wrinkles as well as architecture, can be found. Before Los Angeles, JR pasted The Wrinkles of the City in Cartagena, Spain (2008) and in Shanghai, China (2010).
According to JR and The Wrinkles of the City in LA, he says “Los Angeles is the place where the Hollywood myth was born, with its stars system, the glamour and the beauty being part of the identity of the city.”
For this project, JR wishes to oppose the wrinkles of old people living in LA and the marks of their past with the image of perfection or regenerated beauty in the 21st century. For instance, in Southern California, plastic surgery is no longer a luxury but a lifestyle. It is now socially accepted, above all cultural and social barriers. With this approach, the most interesting part of the project is to spread these old wrinkled portraits in the city, using the gigantic urban development as a huge canvas. Contrary to Cartagena or Shanghai, JR won’t paste on ruins or destroyed walls and buildings. The city is considered by planners and geographers as a forerunner and model for the development of American metropolis. The “City of Angels” appears as a laboratory of “urban postmodernism” that offers large new and recent walls to paste downtown and all around the suburbs. Considering JR’s way of working, Los Angeles could become a real open air museum.
You can follow his project in LA here: http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/jr-in-la/
Wooster Collective X Kickstarter
Two of our favorite entities have teamed up together. Wooster Collective, which brings to light urban art, street art, plus books, films, and other kinds of ephemeral art and inspiration, particularly through their famous website, now has its own page on Kickstarter, the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world.
Beginning this month, the Wooster Collective area is showcasing on Kickstarter projects that Wooster loves and supports. According to Wooster Collective’s producers, Marc and Sara Schiller, “The curated projects won%uFFFDt be limited to street art and will be updated each week.
In the coming weeks we%uFFFDll be launching our own Kickstarter projects as well as proving other projects with gifts and incentives for them to use in their fundraising.”
So far the projects selected that we’ve seen are inspirational and will probably get some DIY Kickstarter funding. Check it out here.
Banksy takes over Sunset Blvd.
Banksy’s in the House
While his documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop” did not win an Oscar last Sunday night, thus crushing many fans who wondered if they might get a chance to see the mysterious UK street artist, or at least see him in his guerilla mask, the artist is in town as witnessed by several people siting Banksy art.
From here in downtown LA, to Hollywood, to a Banksy-ized billboard over Sunset Boulevard, at least we had the pleasure to see his work in person over the past week, even if the Oscar’s attempts to “reach youth culture” went down the tubes after announcing “Inside Job” as the Oscar winner instead of Banksy’s film.
We vote for Banksy to host the Oscars next year.
Banksy Charlie Brown in Hollywood. Photo from Wooster Collective.
