JR, Inside Out project | Artist Study

Artist and Ted Prize winner of 2011, JR, works and lives in NY and Paris, continues to invite and promote participation from communities around the world to witness and experience the power of paper and glue. From being a facilitator to 'being a printer,' JR has joined thousands of journeys to bringing people closer. The medium has enabled various platforms to take place for dialogues to happen. The physicality of the medium also helps to activate certain conversations around embodiment of space.

I have followed JR's artistic developments for some time and have referenced him and his work in my teaching with Year 13 Photography students. However, the richness and multidimensional nature of JR's projects can be approached from many different angles and certainly excite younger learners too as they are highly authentic and relevant to people of all ages, races, and cultures.

Below is a presentation of JR's Inside Out Project as an artist study and a provocation to get learners into the mind-frame of what a social action art project looks like and what is the role of art in our current society. The conversation can also lead into Relational Aesthetics for older learners.

This presentation is estimated to run for 65 minutes including mini-workshops and discussions. You will see it was designed particularly for the OJC learners here in the Flat Bush area. However, this provocation can be presented to other communities as a starting point to an awesome inquiry project involving social science and photography.

[https://sway.com/bFqYLkJ12cINd8SA?ref=Link]

Although I officially signed up with the Inside Out Project, the learners and I did not end up going through the printing process with them. Instead, we printed in house and it was yet another level of rich learning inciting student ownership and agency.

Here is a sneak peak of what we presented at the end-of-term school Expo:

We are very proud of what we presented. The level of energy and participation on Expo day was phenomenal - the installation changed throughout the day when more people had their portrait photo taken and printed.