In response to the ongoing immigration debate ranging from Trump’s proposed border wall to the DACA reversal, French artist JR erected a 70-foot installation of a boy peering over the border into the US.
About The Installation
Famous French artist JR installed one of his large-format photographs at Tecate, in the Mexican side of the USA-Mexico border. installation, which will be visible for a month, depicts a Mexican child named Kikito that turned 1 year old in last April. The work refers to Donald Trump’s decision to get rid of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, an important Obama administration program on immigration which protects children (some of them now adults) of illegal immigrants in the U.S. from being deported.
About The Artist
JR is the pseudonym of a French photographer and artist whose identity is unconfirmed. Describing himself as a photographer, he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations, in a manner similar to the appropriation of the built environment by the graffiti artist. He states that the street is “the largest art gallery in the world”. He started out on the streets of Paris. JR’s work often challenges widely held preconceptions and the reductive images propagated by advertising and the media.
JR’s work combines art and action, and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits.
