The Inside Out Project
Downtown Baton Rouge
October 9-11
Those driving around downtown this weekend will notice new faces plastered in black and white on to the side of buildings.
This is part of The Inside Out Project, a global art initiative that helps people organize actions to bring public art to their own communities through large, black- and-white portraits inspired by the work of French artist JR. The portraits can represent different things within different communities: a commitment to fight for feminism, education, children’s rights, or against racism, climate change, etc. In Baton Rouge, the project of large portraits is meant to bring the community together.
"The Art of Us Together is a call to unite the Greater Baton Rouge region through creativity," wrote Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge CEO Jonathan Grimes on the council’s website. "By bringing art beyond walls and into public spaces, we celebrate the strength, imagination, and diversity that connect us all."
The project is simple: Volunteers drive a photobooth car to a city and take photos that are printed basically instantaneously. After they’ve collected photos for the day, the volunteers glue them onto the side of the building where the photo was taken.
According to a volunteer manning the photo station on Thursday, this kind of work reflects the community back to itself and shows a diversity in the city people might not notice is there.
It’s a lofty goal. But reflecting the city to Baton Rouge back to itself is challenging. How does one even find out about something like this? The project did manage to draw an interesting cross section of the city even on a random Thursday morning.
Standing in line, people were primping, adjusting their clothes and chatting. One woman, looking for a forever home for the dog she’s fostering, was trying to figure out the logistics of potentially getting the dog in her photo, another woman adjusted her scarf and put on a bindi. Office workers showed up in suits or work branded polo shirts. Even LSU’s Mike the Tiger pulled up for this.
Seeing a portrait of your face that is the size of your body is disorienting. Baby hairs that were not visible in the iPhone camera check are huge. I’m not tall, so the reflection of the flash leaves a large white circle over my head. But when the image is pasted among 53 other portraits, there’s a beauty in looking at all these strangers brought together by an art project that got made and installed on the same day. We all showed up to create together, maybe we can show up again and create more in the future.
“Art is not supposed to change the world, to change practical things, but to change perceptions,” artist JR, whose work inspired this project said in his Tedtalk. “Art can change the way we see the world. Art can create an analogy. Actually the fact that art cannot change things makes it a neutral place for exchanges and discussions, and then enables you to change the world.”
I’m optimistic about this project as more portraits go up this weekend. The photos on Friday and Saturday are being taken outside of work hours, which means even more people can participate. The portraits will be up for a few weeks and naturally degrade over time as they’re exposed to Louisiana weather and heat. Then, we should see what we’re doing next.
