Friday, March 20, 2009

Larger than Life

In the most inspiring piece of outdoor installation art I may have ever seen, French artist JR uses his photographs of Kenyan women at a large scale to bring attention to those who are unseen and unempowered. The portraits are printed on waterproof material, to protect the homes during the rainy season, and installed atop the roofs of their subjects. Via Supertouch: "With the help of enthusiastic residents, JR managed to cover 2,000 square meters of local rooftops with photos of the eyes and faces of the women of Kibera (one of the largest slums in Africa), giving them a monumental voice and presence in a city where their own existence is often marginalized."


JR also uses the images on the side and top of the local train, allowing his message to reach even further. "The pinnacle of the experience... comes when the eyes on the moving train align with the static bottom halves of the subject's face posted along the train's embankment, completing the smiling portraits for a split second in rapid succession before moving on to the next village where the experience is repeated." Inspirational, beautiful, and so, so cool. ••••

2 comments:

Robert said...

this is brilliant. the work, your comments, the whole thing. thank you for sharing this; i certainly wouldn't have seen it otherwise. i love it.

Anonymous said...

incredible