Can Art Change the World?
Parisian photographer and street artist “JR” has undertaken many projects that have spanned the planet, using giant billboard sized monochromatic photographs in unexpected places, in positions of high visibility.
He started out as a graffiti artist in Paris, but after finding a camera on the Metro, began taking photographs documenting his friends painting graffiti on the rooftops and walls of the city..
He now mixes the two mediums of photography and graffiti, calling himself a “photograffeur”, posting giant black and white photographs in public places.
Can Art turn the world inside out?
The Largest Illegal Photo Exhibition in the World
His “Face 2 Face” project was dubbed “the largest illegal photo exhibition in the world” in which the border wall which runs the length of the disputed area between Israel and Palestine became a gallery of giant portraits of Jews and Palestinians of all denominations and types, grinning and pulling faces into the camera and posted side by side along large stretches of the wall.
Part of this is a giant triptych of a rabbi, a priest and an immam wearing intentionally comic expressions. The message is simple but powerful: there is far more that unites humanity than that which divides it. “It’s about breaking down barriers,” JR says. “With humour, there is life.”
Women are Heroes
His more recent “Women are Heroes” project took him to meet, work with and photograph women in slums and war-torn, poverty stricken communities across the world, using art as a medium to reaffirm the positive, creative side of humanity.
“They keep on asking you: what is the purpose of your project? Are you an NGO? are you the media? … Art. Just an artist…
Some who understood the project will explain it to others: to a man who did not understand I heard someone said:
“You know, You’ve been here for a few hours trying to understand this thing with your fellows. During that time, you haven’t think about what you’re going to eat tomorrow. This is art.”
“Women are Heroes” created a new dynamic in each of the communities and the women kept that dynamic after we left. For example, we created book, not for sale, but that all the community would get but to get it they would have to make it signed by one of the women…
Its really important point to me is that I don’t use any brands or corporate sponsor, so I have no responsibility to anyone but myself and the sisters…
They made me promise… please, make our story travel with you…so I did…look… that’s Paris, that’s Rio… that’s London… New York…”
Turn the World Inside Out – Participate in a Global Project
His latest project is one that everyone can participate in:
“I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world.. INSIDE OUT.
When we act together, the whole thing is more than the sum of the parts.
So I hope that together we will create something that the world will remember, and this starts right now, and depends on you.”
Use the link below to find out how you can participate.
Read MoreThe World’s Saddest Dolphins
Report by ACRES – Animal Concerns Research and Education Society
Dolphins don’t express emotions with their facial muscles.
Their mouth is just shaped in a way that we humans misinterpret as a smile. So even when a dolphin is suffering from high stress, visitors to marine parks often come away thinking that the dolphin is having a good time.
This is usually far from the truth.
Forever curious, forever free?
27 dolphins were captured from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Some were transported to Langkawi.While others were kept in Subic bay, Philippines.
When two of the dolphins in Langkawi died, Resorts World moved them all to the Philippines.
Above: Diving among free dolphins
Free Dolphins Roam Thousands of Kilometers Together
They are sensitive mammals capable of great emotion and feeling and intelligence. In the wild, they roam thousands of kilometers of ocean together. They are used to exploring three-dimensional underwater worlds full of sounds, sights, movement, colour, varying landscapes and changing currents.
Proud, Intelligent Creatures Begging for Dead Fish
Their world has already shrunk to a square sea pen, devoid of variety, bereft of sea life. They can’t hunt anymore. They beg and jump for handouts of dead fish, which arrive in buckets. There’s nowhere for them to roam, except back and forth. And nothing to do except turn round and round and go slowly mad.
For more information, see the Save the World’s Saddest Dolphins website by local group ACRES (Animal Concerns Research and Education Society):http://www.saddestdolphins.com/
We also appealed to Singaporeans to support this cause and do their bit to persuade RWS to free the dolphins.
Please note: ***You can also change the wording on the letter and put your own thoughts in the letter.***
FaceBook: Unfriend Coal
GreenPeace campaigns against FaceBook using Coal
Facebook announced in February 2010 that it was building a massive new data centre in Oregon, USA. Claiming to be using the latest energy efficient computers.
It did not mention that it would be powering the beast with the dirtiest of all energy: coal.
GreenPeace is running a campaign to try to make them realise what a bad choice that is. Their campaign: Facebook: Unfriend Coal asks Facebook to:
- Increase the use of clean energy to make Facebook coal free Develop a plan to make Facebook coal free by 2021
- Educate your users about how Facebook powers its services and its carbon footprint
- Advocate for clean energy at a local, national and international level
“Basically, we are campaigning to get Facebook to drop coal and commit to 100 percent renewable energy, cutting its carbon footprint and helping in the struggle to prevent catastrophic climate change.”
Photo Realism Speed Painting by Chris Scalf
Photo Realist Drawing by Chris Scalf
“I did this as an exercise for the purpose of, quite simply, practice. It’s been a while since I attempted anything photo-real… It’s very good to do this kind of thing because it strengthens your freehand drawing abilities, as well as developing an eye for detail.
Freehand drawn in photoshop cs2 (from a reference photo off to the side) with a wacom tablet.
time-lapsed… real time was about 3 and a half hours. “
Why “photorealism”, Why not just use a camera?
The answer is simple. I’ve made the point many times in my replies, comments and descriptions. But I’ll make it clearer here for those who do not understand: It’s for practice. It is the same as a musician practicing scales, so that he can write better songs…Or even a musician who plays a song from another famous musician on a CD– also to make himself better… To inspire/aspire to become better at the craft/skill.
It’s the same with the art. Sure I am just acting like a human camera and re-creating every detail and color I see– but that’s where the conditioning is. Same as that musician that is replicating the sounds of a scale or someone else’s song. (Why not just say to the musician, “why bother playing that song? Just put in the CD?” )
The fact that it is all freehand and controlled by my judgement makes it so valuable to attempt…. I have to be able to see and recognize exact tones of color, and be able to recreate it with extreme accuracy from scratch. I must be able to recognize every detail and the consistency that makes that detail REAL. It strengthens my abilities to be able to create works of art that come from my imagination.
Aside from practice, it is also a very commonly sought skill in the commercial trades to be able to mimic real-life with art. In addition to that, it does entertain the majority.
So there you go.”
| About: Chris Scalf |
The Google Art Project: Explore to Your Art’s Delight
The Google Art Project is a unique collaberation between Google and some of the world’s leading art museums, which enables people to discover some of the best works of art from around the world and examine them in high resolution detail.
Using the Street View technology of Google Earth one is able to move around the museums using interactive floor plans.
Where in the World is This?
It is an exciting way to learn more about the museums, galleries and art treasures of the world that interest you the most, and then go on to explore further afield and make new discoveries for yourself.
This is also an excellent way to plan in advance for your visit in real-life to one of these museums, as you can do all the “groundwork of research” in from the web – perhaps this could be called “cloudwork” or “cloudplanning”, or maybe designing a “cloudjourney”?
You can experience incredible close-up views of the artwork which you can zoom into – look at the brush-strokes an artist uses, in microscopic detail – a wonderful way to get the feeling of the personality and creative style of the artist. It is easy to move around paintings.
You can find more work by the same artist or learn more about the work by reading the detailed descriptions or listening to an audio tour. You can watch YouTube videos created by the museum or gallery themselves, while you are exploring the paintings.
Use the drop-down menus to choose a museum and to find artworks from that museum or find a specific work you are looking for. A way to discover hidden secrets, and work you would never otherwise have found.
Of course, cloud travel gives you the ability to walk through walls, fly along corridors, hop from one room to another or float up through the ceiling to explore another level, so it does mean you can cover a lot of ground a lot easier. And you won’t wear out the soles of your shoes as quickly either.
You can also create your own collection of favourite work, and then share it with friends, or perhaps use it while teaching your art class. Your very own collection of the best in the world, available at your fingertips… why not become an art collector?
http://youtu.be/GThNZH5Q1yY
Things you can do with the Google Art Project:
•Explore museums with Street View technology: virtually move around the museum’s galleries, selecting works of art that interest you, navigate though interactive floor plans and learn more about the museum and you explore.
•Artwork View: discover featured artworks at high resolution and use the custom viewer to zoom into paintings. Expanding the info panel allows you to read more about an artwork, find more works by that artist and watch related YouTube videos.
•Create your own collection: the ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature allows you to save specific views of any of the 1000+ artworks and build your own personalised collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family.
It has never been more fun or stimulating to prepare yourself to get the most out of your real-life visit.
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