In the Summer of 2018, do you remember seeing a fifty-three-foot long trailer tuck (the mobile studio) in your neighborhood? The trailer truck spent a month driving through all five boroughs, checking out numerous locations, taking photographs of people from all walks of life who wished to participate in French-artist, JR’s project, The Chronicles of New York, which coincides with his current retrospective, JR: Chronicles, at Brooklyn Museum of Art.
More than a 1,128 people were photographed for this mural ~ each choosing how they wished to be interpreted, and asked to share their stories, which are on a free mobile app.
How did we miss this! Image above ~ the 53-foot-mobile studio parked outside the Hotel Theresa, along Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd between 124th/125th Streets in Harlem.
Each participant was photographed in front of a green screen inside the mobile studio, then their portraits were collaged into a New York City setting in or around an architectural landmark that included the Williamsburg Bridge, Freedom Tower, and Empire State Building.
Now on view, The Chronicles of New York City, a fifty-three-foot-high mural, overlooks Domino Park and the East River, with the Williamsburg Bridge in the background. It is the centerpiece image from JR: Chronicles, currently on view at Brooklyn Museum. The mural is installed on 16 stacked shipping containers, and is JR’s biggest public project in New York City to date.
Below are a few close-ups. Look close ~ you may not only find people you know, but also notice actor Robert De Niro, dancer Lil Buck and even JR himself (doing a wheelie on a bike).
Listen to the story of each participant in The Chronicles of New York by downloading the free JR:murals app ~ for iPhone: bit.ly/JRmurals or on Android: bit.ly/JRmuralsPlay
This installation is conceived in collaboration with LOT-EK, known for sustainable and innovative approach to construction through the up-cycling of industrial objects and systems like shipping containers, designed Triangle STACK #2 to help bring JR’s mural into the city’s open space.
JR’s murals are also on view at Kings Theatre in Flatbush and the Brooklyn Academy of Global Finance in Bedford-Stuyvesant, with more planned for the run of the exhibition.
JR: The Chronicles of New York at Domino Park, will be on view through May 3, 2020.
Taking it indoors, JR:Chronicles (image below) is on view at the Brooklyn Museum through May 3, 2020.
JR ~ Chronicles in Brooklyn and San Francisco
Check out different views of The Chronicles of New York at design boom.
Taking a look back at JR: Horizontal, a solo exhibition at Perrotin NYC.