Dec

Can Art Change the World? Artivist JR Has the Answer

by Meredith Mullins on December 1, 2020

Portrait of artivist JR Artist, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

French artivist JR (artist/activist)
© JR

JR’s Monumental Portraits Spark Social Awareness

There are hundreds of motivational quotes about how one person can make a difference . . . or shake the world. One person can be a revolution.

We know it’s true. There are people throughout past and recent history who changed the world—sometimes for worse . . . but mostly for better.

French artivist (artist/activist) JR is one of those people with an instinct for the positive side of change—a street revolutionary, a shaker of the world—with a simple goal of better understanding what makes us human.

His photographic projects and documentaries spark connections in a diverse world and heighten social awareness—all with his driving force of respecting differences, seeking the best of humanness, and valuing unity.

Can art change the world? JR is living proof.

Wrinkles of the City in Shanghai by Artivist JR Artist, showing social awareness and answering the question can art save the world. (Image © JR.)

JR’s Wrinkles of the City project honored senior citizens in Shanghai, Cartegena,
Havana, Berlin, Istanbul, and Los Angeles.
© JR

For People To “See” and “To Be Seen”

Although JR prefers to remain relatively anonymous (JR stands for Jean-René . . . no last name), his work has been recognizable from the start.

He is unique—from the tag he used as a defiant teenage graffiti artist (Face 3) in the early 2000’s to his first “exhibitions” pasted on the public walls of Paris and the banlieue with spray painted frames, to the now famous world-sized “pastings” of black-and-white photos on buildings, rooftops, bridges, cargo containers, trucks, and trains.

A train in Kenya with the work of Artivist JR Artist, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

A train travels through the Kenya countryside, with the all-seeing eyes of local women—
a vision toward the future.
© JR

The work is not about him. It is about giving people their moment to be seen . . . to be better understood, especially when they have often been overlooked or marginalized. Women. Prisoners. Elders. War Victims. Immigrants. And just ordinary people who feel invisible.

JR started as a graffiti artist, making his presence known on illegal concrete and metal canvases (walls, buildings, and metro cars) throughout the city. His life changed one day when he found a camera left behind on the metro.

He then became what he called a photograffeur (photographer and graffiti artist), traveling with his street artist friends and capturing their fleeting adventures in the Paris area underground, alleys, and rooftops. He showed us what it was like to surreptitiously paint and run.

Artivist JR's Graffiti artist painting on a metro car, showing cultural diversity, social awareness, and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

The acrobatic adventures of a street artist
© JR

His first “exhibitions” of this work included photocopies of the images, with spray painted frames on walls and buildings so that people would be confronted by the images in this outdoor (albeit illegal) gallery—free for everyone.

A gallery on a wall in Paris by artivist JR artist, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Mon expo à moi (My own exhibit)
JR’s outdoor gallery, free for everyone
© JR

His initial documentary work came with the 2005 riots in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. He photographed the participants who were protesting what they believed to be police harassment/brutality in the poorer housing estates and made huge photos to be pasted around Paris and the suburb cities—so that passers-by would be forced to look into the faces of these disenfranchised youth.

If video does not display, watch it here.

Face 2 Face (Israel to Palestine)

JR’s next illegal project (2007) was an international one in collaboration with Marco Berrebi, where he photographed Israeli and Palestinian people in the same professions with a 28 mm lens.

This close-up approach meant that the taxi drivers, hairdressers, students, sportspeople, actors, musicians, sculptors, and police looked comically distorted. It also meant they were engaged with the photographer. They talked . . . and listened. They connected.

JR then pasted the huge black-and-white photographs in unavoidable places in eight cities in both Israel and Palestine (including on the dividing wall).

The intent and the result was that most people could not tell if the subjects were Israeli or Palestinian. The viewers no doubt smiled at the fun expressions, recognized certain similarities, and engaged in conversation about the project. More importantly, they perhaps focused on the possibility of living together as humans in peace.

Face 2 Face, the work of artivist JR artist, in the West Bank of Palestine, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Israelis and Palestinians pasted on the separation wall in Bethlehem, Palestinian side.
© JR

Woman Are Heroes

The “Women Are Heroes” project began in 2007 and stretched from Kenya to Brazil, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Cambodia, India, Paris, and Le Havre.

JR met and photographed women who live in the midst of conflict or in challenging climate or economic conditions and who are often targets during war and victims of violence. And yet, they play a pivotal role in family and society.

As in all his projects, he then pasted the large photographs in highly visible places in the cities and villages, so that the women were “seen” and shown with dignity.

One of the most dramatic pastings was in the Morro da Providência favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this dangerous slum, the faces of the women inside the homes were shown on the outside walls, filling the hillside with haunting eyes and poignant faces. And for one brief moment, the favela was known for something other than drugs and violence.

Women are Heroes photos by artivist JR pasted on houses in the Favela Morro da Providência, Brazil, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Women Are Heroes in the Favela Morro da Providência, Brazil.
© JR

For the Kenya project, the photos that were placed on the women’s roofs were made of water resistant vinyl so that they would last longer and could protect the fragile houses during the rainy season.

Because many of the women photographed for this project asked that their stories be shared with the world, the photos were pasted on trains and trucks that traveled throughout the countries.

The ultimate journey was when JR pasted a Kenyan women’s eyes on cargo containers that were on a ship leaving Le Havre, France, bound for Malaysia. These eyes went off to see the world . . . and to be seen by the world.

Women Are Heroes photo by artivist JR in Sierra Leone, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Making the strong women of Sierra Leone visible to all
© JR

This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

Immigration and “the wall” between the U.S. and Mexico were in the news in 2017 when JR created a project highlighting the border fence near Tecate, Mexico.

He created a giant billboard-like installation of a Mexican child innocently peeking over the fence into the United States. What does this promised land hold . . . or bar? What do we see from this Mexican border town where most everyone passing through tries to be invisible?

Artivist JR's pasting of a child looking over the USA Mexico border near Tecate Mexico, showing cultural diversity and social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

What is Kikito thinking as he peeks over the border fence into the USA?
© JR

To celebrate the day when the installation had to be removed, JR organized a picnic on both sides of the fence, with a table that was half in the U.S. and half in Mexico and a “tablecloth” that presented the eyes of a DACA dreamer.

Everyone brought food to share. Music wafted through the fence, with half the band in the U.S. and half in Mexico.

JR thought the border patrol would stop the celebration, but the party was allowed to continue. Everyone was reveling in a rare moment of unity.

Artivist JR organizes a picnic on both sides of the border fence near Tecate Mexico, showing cultural diversity and social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

An impromptu celebration of unity at the border fence between Mexico and the USA
© JR

Giving Voice to Prisoners

From the disenfranchised youth of JR’s home in the suburbs of Paris to the California Tehachapi maximum-security prison, JR focuses on making us see those we have made invisible.

For his 2019 project at the prison, he photographed prisoners, guards, and former prisoners—one by one— from above, so that when they were combined into one mural on the concrete floor of the yard, they would appear to be looking outward. Each man was also videotaped telling his story. There was no judgement. JR just wanted to listen . . . and for others to listen.

Artivist JR's pasting at the Tehachapi Prison, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

Prisoners, former prisoners, and guards at the Tehachapi Prison come together
in JR’s mural pasting and look out toward . . .
© JR

The prisoners were part of the team that pasted the photos to the yard—one team building something together. The mural was ephemeral, like many of JR’s works. The pasting disappeared in three days with the normal activity of the prisoners in the yard.

If video does not display, watch it here.

As an epilogue to this project, JR returned in 2020 and pasted photographs of the Tehachapi mountains on the prison wall, making the wall disappear and morph into a mirage of freedom.

Artivist JR pastes a mural at the Tehachapi prison yard and wall, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

A mirage of freedom—making the prison wall merge with the mountains
© JR

Oh, I See: Turning the World Inside Out

JR, the artivist, is prolific. His projects are too numerous to mention in one story. He has turned the Louvre pyramid into 3D time travel (2019) and has honored the elderly of the world in a project called “Wrinkles of the City” (2008-2015).

Artivist JR's installation at the Louvre in Paris in 2019, showing social awareness and answering the question can art change the world. (Image © JR.)

JRs 2019 3D optical illusion at the Louvre pyramid in Paris
© JR

He continues to expand our social awareness and invent creative ways to shine a light on those who need to be more visible in the name of fairness and equality.

Can art change the world? JR’s foundation of that name hopes so.

One thing is certain. JR believes that art can change the way we see the world and the amazing humans that inhabit this planet. He will continue to open our eyes so that we can see and be seen. Onward . . .

See also JR’s 2017 film with Agnes Varda entitled Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and his organization Can Art Change The World.

Thank you to JR and Agence VU.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 4 Comments

Cultural Diversity/The World's Photography/USA/Worldwide Sites

Nov

In the Kitchen with OIC: “Pan” Cultural Cuisine!

by Joyce McGreevy on November 23, 2020

In lockdown? Don’t flip out—flip a pancake instead!
Gilaxia/ iStock

Easy Pancakes from Around the World

Rembrandt sketched them. Shakespeare wrote them into his plays. Sweden established an academy in their honor. They’ve starred in ancient tales and modern movies, inspired mad dashes and dashes of spice and color.

They are pancakes. For many of us, that means a common breakfast food that takes minutes to cook, seconds to eat, and hours to walk off. In fact, that little circle on your plate connects to a multitude of ingredients, shapes, languages, and traditions. Oh, I see: Known by hundreds of names and varieties around the world, this food encompasses a rich “pan” cultural cuisine.

Let’s explore this sisterhood of the traveling pancakes. Along the way, we’ll see how different kinds of pancakes stack up. On your return, peruse our menu of online classes to cook easy pancakes from around the world.

Palatschinke are among the most popular of easy pancakes from around the world. (Image by MariaPolna and Pxhere)

Popular in Slavic culture, palatschinke are Greco-Roman in origin.
MariaPolna/ Pxhere

Breakfast of Ancient Champions

For many culinary historians, all foods lead to ancient Rome. The Romans spiced their pancakes and dubbed them Alita Dolcia. Lyrical but lazy, it simply means “another sweet.” In the second century, Greek physician Galen saw fit to provide a detailed recipe for them in his medical tome. Still popular today, traditional teganitai are sizzled in olive oil and topped with honey.

But did the Greeks invent pancakes as is often claimed? It’s true that many forms of pancake developed throughout Europe, became popular in the Middle Ages, and later crossed the Atlantic. However, archaeological evidence shows that indigenous peoples of the Americas had been making cachapas, arepas, and other corn-based pancakes since early pre-Columbian times.

A cachapa, a Venezuelan pancake, is among the easy pancakes around the world made with corn. (Image by nehopelon and iStock)

Starchier than tortillas, Venezuelan cachapas are filled with creamy cheese
and eaten hot off the griddle.
nehopelon/ iStock

Early on, almost every culture improvised griddles from hot stones. At food festivals in Lucca, Italy, a few chefs still rock this method. To make necci, they pour batter onto hot, flat stones, cover them with chestnut leaves, and stack them on top of each other. The choice of leaves is apt, because necci are made with chestnut flour, milled from the harvest of local forests.

Flour Power

Chestnuts, corn—these are just two items on a long list of pancake possibilities, as well as reminders that “gluten-free” pancakes are nothing new. The flours that power a culture’s popular pancakes include:

rice: India’s dosa and malpua, Korea’s jeon
chickpeas: Southern France’s socca
beans: Nigeria’s akara, Japan’s dorayaki
potatoes: Ireland’s boxty, Ecuador’s llapingachos
buckwheat (which isn’t a wheat at all): New Brunswick’s ploye, Nepal’s phapar ko roti)

Add wheat, and suddenly the globe is paved in pancakes from Samoa (panikeke) to Morocco (beghrir) to New Zealand (pikelets).

A dish of malpua pancakes from India shows why some easy pancakes from around the world have been popular for thousands of years. (Image by Kailash Kumar and iStock)

India’s malpua has sweetened palates for 3,000 years.
Kailash Kumar/ iStock

**What’s in Your Pancake?**

The variety of flours is matched by what different cultures put on, and in, their pancakes. The world beyond maple syrup extends to condensed milk (Thailand), sour cream (Russia), shredded coconut (Brazil), pork fat with lingonberries (Sweden), bonito fish flakes (Japan), and edible flowers (Korea).

The look varies widely, too. Italy’s borlenghi are so big they’re also known as cartwheel pancakes. By contrast, Dutch poffertjes are teensy—they originated in a church as an improved form of communion host. Amen!

Scrambled pancakes, or Kaiserschmarrn, suggest the variety of easy pancakes from around the world. (Image by Pxhere)

Purposely scrambled, Austria’s Kaiserschmarrn means “Emperor’s mess.”
Pxhere

As for color, Indonesia’s kue ape pancakes come by their vibrant green naturally, thanks to pandan. The leaves of this tropical plant are used to make an extract that’s been compared to vanilla. The batter is cooked in woks to create a spongy center and a crispy edge. Home cooks— which is all of us these days—can find pandan flavoring extract for sale online and at our local Asian markets.

Kue ape pancakes from Indonesia are bright green, showing the variety of easy pancakes from around the world. (Image by MielPhotos2008 and iStock)

Kue ape are made with wheat flour, coconut milk, and palm sugar.
MielPhotos2008/ iStock

Not all pancake ingredients catch on, of course. In Miss Parloa’s New Cookbook (Boston, 1881) the pancake mix called for “a bowl of snow.” Seems it met the melts-in-your-mouth test, but was a little too back-to-the-land.

Pancake Planet

The world’s pancakes come with a generous side of fascinating stories.

According to traditional storytellers, it wasn’t the gingerbread man, but the pancake who ran away. Well, rolled. The runaway pancake features in several “fleeing food” tales, including in Norway, Germany, and Russia.
In Japanese legend, a samurai accidentally left his gong at a farmer’s house where he had been hiding. The farmer used it to cook “gong cakes,” the literal meaning of dorayaki. Dorayaki pancakes are also the favorite food of a time-traveling robot cat. Doraemon is the title character of a smash-hit series of manga books and movies.
In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” the Bard flips pancakes into wordplay. Coincidentally, “as you like it” is the literal meaning of okonomiyaki, another Japanese pancake.
Several countries have religious traditions of eating pancakes the night before Lent. In France during La Chandeleur, the pancake of choice is a crêpe. An old tradition was to place one crêpe into a drawer to attract prosperity. It would certainly have attracted something.

Women running with frying pans in the Pancake Race in Olney, England evoke the fun and history of easy pancakes around the world, (Image by RobinMeyesrcough, licensed by Wikemedia Commons CC BY 2.0)

On hold for now, the Pancake Race in Olney, England was first run in 1445.
Robin Meyerscough/ CC BY 2.0

Coming full circle, the most astonishing thing about pancakes remains their sheer variety, even when considered (or better yet, eaten) within a single country. Italian pancakes alone include crespelle al bitto, ciaffignone, chisciöl, scrippelle ‘mbusse, and several others. In short, we’ve only just scratched the surface of the pancake’s many layers.

That’s all the more reason to get your hands on recipes for easy pancakes from around the world. Check out the menu below this post. We’ve stuffed it like a savory Breton galette with links to virtual cooking classes and entertaining demos. After all, what goes better with pancakes than a side of links?

A chef making dozens of tiny pancakes suggests the popularity and variety of easy pancakes from around the world. (Image by mel_88 and Pxhere)

Have yourself a merry little pancake!
mel_88/ Pixabay

Get cooking! Click on a pancake name to sign up for a live online cooking class: potato pancakes, crêpes, Japanese soufflé pancakes, Bavarian apple pancakes, Osaka style okonomiyaki, and Chinese scallion pancakes.

Can’t wait? Click on a place name for quick how-to videos: Venezuela (cachapas), Nepal (phapar ko roti), Austria (kaiserschmarrn, in German with English captions), Ireland (boxty).

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Joyce McGreevy 4 Comments

Cultural Diversity/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/The World's Chefs/Worldwide Sites

Nov

Gaining Perspective in a Chaotic World

by Meredith Mullins on November 17, 2020

Time to shake things up?
© Meredith Mullins

The Rewards of Seeing from Varied Angles

How often does your perspective change these days? Can you think of times when you expanded your view of a situation or of the world just by changing your point of reference?

Perhaps when you summited a mountain and the 360-degree vista expanded exponentially while distant objects became flattened miniatures that suddenly seemed small in the grander scheme of things?
Or, when you looked down and found a detail in the street that you’d never seen before even though you’d walked over it a thousand times?
Or, maybe when you crawled through that narrow opening between cave rocks and discovered a cathedral ceiling of stalactites in an underworld worthy of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Hidden treasures through just a crack in the rocks
Photo courtesy of PxHere

Changing how you see the world is important whether you’re traveling with eyes and mind wide open or sheltering in place during a pandemic.

A constant shift is the key to gaining perspective in a chaotic world. As French writer Anaïs Nin said, “We do not see things as they are, but rather as we are.”

What do you see here?
© Meredith Mullins

The Time Is Right for Gaining Perspective

The timing could not be more urgent for gaining perspective. We are living in stressful times—a global pandemic, domestic and international terrorism, and elections with significant consequences in a divided USA.

It might be time to shake things up . . . to explore some examples of how to change one’s view, such as turning the world upside down and varying your points of reference. There are many interesting ways to gain perspective as we travel through these chaotic times.

Embrace Matanozoki

Matanozoki is the Japanese word for peeking between your legs to turn the world upside down. A creative way to change perspective.

One of the premier viewing spots for ultimate matanozoki is the isthmus of Amanohashidate in Kyoto Prefecture.

When you look between your legs, the sky becomes sea and the pine-tree covered sandbar looks like a dragon reaching to the heavens. (Granted, to see said dragon, you have to let your mind wander imaginatively . . . but, why not?)

Turn the world upside down from time to time.

When in Doubt, Climb Things

A favorite way to change perspective is to go aerial. Climb things. Fly over things. See the forest rather than the trees.

Travelers love to climb things or to rise above ground level to see the “bigger picture,” to take pride in summiting, or just to make sure that they have the best selfie that adventure can buy.

The Empire State Building. The Eiffel Tower. The Seattle Space Needle. The Sydney Harbor Bridge. Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Everest. The Great Wall of China. Angkor Wat. Machu Picchu. Christ The Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

All of these places provide a new perspective, worth climbing to the top to see the world on high.

The tallest building in the world: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
Courtesy of PxHere

Give Ugly (Different?) a Chance

Speaking of tall things that monopolize a skyline, structures like the Eiffel Tower in Paris were not always popular. When the Eiffel Tower was first built, artists and writers called it “a truly tragic street lamp,” “an ungainly skeleton,” and “the metal asparagus.”

Writer Guy de Maupassant ate lunch every day at the tower because, he claimed, it was the only place where he couldn’t see the offensive structure.

As we now know, most have accepted the tower as a Paris icon and a striking, long-lasting piece of structural art. Time heals wounds.

Another such structure in Paris is the Montparnasse Tower, completed in 1973, with most everyone wondering who gave permission for a 59-story monstrosity to be built in the center of the romantic City of Light.

The monolithic Montparnasse Tower
Courtesy of PxHere

I doubt if many people will ever come to treasure the appearance of the Montparnasse Tower. It rises like an angry giant and can be seen from just about every Paris neighborhood. When you photograph the Eiffel Tower from the north, the Montparnasse Tower is always lurking in the background.

However, once inside, at the restaurant Ciel de Paris, the views are breathtaking. (Ciel in French can mean sky or heaven. In either case, it seems to be true.)

Do the ends justify the means? You be the judge.

Look Up

As life-changing as being “at the top of the world” might be, you can also learn from hitting the ground and looking up. We are used to observing at eye level, so remembering to alter viewing perspective or to look up from time to time often offers rewards.

Like improv comedians or jazz musicians, it’s important to build on the possibilities of the moment. Pushing the boundaries and varying the view works well to see things more completely.

See the Details

Whether you believe “The devil is in the details,” or the original quote, “God is in the details,” the point is well taken. Noticing details is rewarding, but you have to slow down and change your perspective in order to really see.

Try On Different Shoes

No, this isn’t an ad for the ample shoe closets of the Sex in the City characters. This is a call to occasionally put yourself in the shoes of others.

Become a child again. Feel the freedom of reckless abandon or the pure joy of skipping down the street. Let imagination run wild.

Empathy is also a key way to gaining perspective. What exactly is the other person saying or thinking? How might understanding their perspective change your own point of view?

After the U.S. election, several key figures suggested we put ourselves in the shoes of our political adversaries, in the hope that it might help to unify the divide. The time is right for this kind of healing. (But if you read some of the twitter threads in response to these suggestions, you probably noted that some challenges lie ahead.)

Gaining Perspective from Einstein

As we think about how to adapt during these challenging times—Einstein’s words seem a timely message.

You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that was used to create that problem.

Oh, I see. The time is right to shift our points of reference—to change the way we see. Gaining perspective in a chaotic world is key to a brighter future.