JR Worked With Inmates to Create an Installation at a Maximum-Security Prison
The French artist will re-release his ‘Tehachapi’ documentary chronicling the experience.
Human connection is at the core of JR‘s multi-disciplinary practice. Through massive photographic displays, he looks to transform the places ingrained in collective memory by superimposing the images of everyday people amongst historical sites, such as the Pyramids of Giza and Milano Centrale, to form new dialogues and spark social change. Over the years, the French artist has also created moving documentaries, most recently with Robert de Niro spotlighting the story of the actor’s late father, as well as a film on Tehachapi, one of California’s most dangerous maximum security prisons.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
Photos: Camille Pajot, Marc Azoulay, Jesse Watson And Jesse Clark. Courtesy Of The Artist.
The latter film debuted last year at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and showcases 48 prisoners serving life sentences without parole. Shot in 2019, JR sat down with each inmate to learn their stories and add back the humanist element to those within the prison system who have been socially stripped of their civility. Each subject was allowed to freely express themselves in the manner they saw fit, while JR photographed them from above and superimposed their image across 338 strips of paper, that together with the guards of the jail, wheat-pasted on the floor of the prison yard.
“The incarcerated men I met there left a profound impact on me, and I wondered how to build a bridge between them and the outside world,” JR wrote via Instagram. “This film is a way of sharing their resilience and journeys toward redemption. It is a manifesto to the power of art as a unifying force of hope.” Tehachapi (2021) will release in theaters across France on June 12.
