Image Project

Initial interpretation: an elderly man who displays an air of humbleness, looking away from the viewer, with his head bowed down in contentment or in compassion. Black and white, contrasting to the young boy running past in bright colours of blue and red, who is not aware of the photographer. Questions: who is this man? who is this boy? What are their importance in being captured in an image?

In context: This is a photograph of graffiti artist, JR's work from 'Wrinkle of the city of Havana' which is part of a series of pastings and murals in Havana that have been featured in a short Cuba film documenting these images. "'Wrinkles of the City,' [is] a global series of public art installations and expressionistic murals centered around enigmatic portraits of the residents in each metropolis, from Berlin to Shanghai..." (Nowness, 2014)

Using photographs from the internet, I recreated this image with the intention to recontextualise the initial interpretation, with the idea of reversing the image of the young and old, producing an emulations that covers different kinds of issues about the society in which we live in.

The process: the background features a wall of graffiti that displays more signatures and logos as a type of vandalism, rather than the established street art of JR.

Background layer

I wanted to use a background that has bright colours, which differs from the original's pastel blue/green wall. In a way, I'm transferring the reds and blues of the younger boys clothes onto the new wall, but not only his colour scheme, but also youth itself has been moved to the wall, rather than the old man and the old, chipped wall of the original.

2nd layer- adding an upset babies face

 When deciding a youth's face, I wanted to use a photograph that was completely opposite from the content and compassionate old man, resulting to this image of a upset and sad baby. Another significant difference with this new profile on the wall is that the baby is looking directly at the camera, which should stimulate a feeling of compassion within the viewer, which contrasts greatly to the original, because in that, the old man, with his head bowed, it is as if he is looking compassionately at something (perhaps the young boy running past). So, even though the age and composure of the baby and man are different, there are still the same emotions present, but now the giver and the recipient are changed. 

3rd layer- adding the old man

Just like the reversal of the subject on the wall, the same has been done for the figure in the foreground; instead of the young boy running past, heading towards the right, I have added an old man walking past, heading towards the left. This change of direction was deliberate; if you were to imagine a timeline that runs left to right, the original boy is heading towards the future with a whole life ahead. But here, the old man is facing the past, knowing that his life has been lived. Also, his image is neither black and white like the image on the wall, nor in colour like the original boy, but is captured in sepia, as if fading away, which contributes to the concept of knowing that his time was in the past.

Touching up- the most challenging part

The most challenging part of the process of emulation was touching up on the finer details: erasing around the walking sticks. It involved zooming up on the man and slowly and thoroughly rubbing out without accidentally rubbing out the sticks themselves. But eventually, the end result of the emulation:

The emulation's possible meaning: figuring out this young generation's placement in the present world and the older generation's placement in the present world. The wall is covered with quotations and signatures by different people, leaving a mark in history, to call out for help or to just to be remembered somewhere. There is always new paint being added constantly (differs from the peeling paint of the original), mainly reds and pinks, that can be associated with passion: love, hate, anger, lust... The baby on the wall is crying out, pleading for someone to show some sympathy (differs from the humble old man of the original), while the old man walking past is also looking directly at the viewer, in despair for what the world has come to, and wanting to return to the past, to a much pleasanter time (differs from the young boy running towards something in the original). 

These alterations have transformed the original message left by JR, while still containing the same types of people and emotions, just presented with different roles. 

References:

 JR & José Parlá: Wrinkles of the City (online), 24th July 2014, Nowness, retrieved 14th August 2014 from http://www.nowness.com/day/2014/6/24/3954/jr-and-jose-parla-wrinkles-of-the-city