JR

Hong Kong

Galerie Perrotin currently presents Pattern – an exhibition showcasing the works of French artist JR.

JR’s pseudonym demonstrates both the humour and keen conscientiousness he brings to his work. He gave himself the same nickname as the character from the television series Dallas, the perfect example of abjectness and the emblem of capitalism at its most egotistic. He did so because he wanted to take on the system on its own playing field, attacking it from the inside, like an alien that we allow to settle in without understanding it right away, until he takes power and drags us into his message.

JR started as a graffiti artist. By photographing his friends holding spray cans and by pasting an illegal exhibition on Paris’s walls, JR became a photographer, poster artist and activist all at the same time; he became a synthesis of his era. The barer he makes his designs, the clearer his message becomes. He draws our attention with a powerful installation and invades us with these expressions that tug at our conscience long after we see them. JR is to the current era of photography what Nan Goldin was in the 1980s. He doesn’t seek to be a virtuoso. In each of his projects he seeks to act as a witness for a community. Using posters and installing them in the actual landscape of the featured crisis, he invents a new tool for distribution, similar to what Goldin did with her audiovisual projections in cafés.

JR

Galerie Perrotin

September 18th – November 10th, 2012
50 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong

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