130 Orchard Street
OPEN MONDAY - FRIDAY, 10AM-6PM
Perrotin New York is pleased to present a project room by JR, which showcases a selection of photographs and short film from the artist’s Tehachapi series.
JR is known for installing large-scale, public murals in collaboration with those portrayed, often with an emphasis on social justice. In October 2019, JR was given access to a maximum-security prison in California with the purpose of working with the incarcerated inhabitants on a collaborative art project. The artist worked with 48 currently or formerly incarcerated people, as well as correctional officers and individuals involved in the incarceration process. Together, they executed a large-scale wheat-paste portrait of the participants, stretched across the prison’s main complex and visible from above Tehachapi.
In 2020, the artist returned to the prison for a second iteration of the project – together with the inmates, he wheat pasted on the courtyard's walls a photograph of the surrounding Tehachapi Mountains. Both projects remained intact for several days before the harsh elements of the Southern California desert caused the wheat-paste to disintegrate. What remains today is documentation of the projects and the stories of each participant.
Concurrently at Tribeca Film Festival, JR debuts a new documentary, titled Paper and Glue, which follows the artist through the creation of ambitious installations across the world. For each project, JR works with local residents in order to capture the heart and energy of their community, ultimately honoring their stories through powerful installations.
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To learn more about the project Tehachapi, you can download the free app for iPhone and for Android: explore the image and listen to all the participant’s stories.
Né en 1983 à Paris, France
Habite et travaille entre Paris, France et New York, NY, USA
JR works at the intersection of photography, street art, filmmaking and social engagement. Over the last two decades he has developed multiple public projects and numerous site-specific interventions in cities all over the world: from buildings in the slums around Paris, to the walls in the Middle East and Africa or the favelas of Brazil. Recent solo exhibitions of his work include The Chronicles of San Francisco at SFMOMA, San Francisco (2019), JR: Chronicles at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (2019) and Momentum, la mécanique de l’épreuve at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2018).
JR is also the director of two full-length documentaries: Women Are Heroes (2011) and, with Agnès Varda, the Academy Award-nominated Faces and Places (2017).