Visualization of Solitude: Street Artist JR’s Works

Abstract

The article discusses the issue of understanding the nature of solitude and its reflection in art, including some aspects of solitude in the digital age. There is noted that this topic has hardly been explored in art history, including in studies on street art, which determines the relevance of this article. The author emphasizes that in art solitude is a filter through which the artist learns to see the world, transforms his/her experience into images, and enters into a dialogue with the viewer. The article examines the reflection of the issue of solitude in contemporary art on the basis of the works of the French street artist JR (he does not give his full name), in particular his video installation “Chronicles of San Francisco”. Most of JR’s creative projects focus on overcoming solitude and isolation: social, gender, race, age, cultural, etc. The author explains the choice of a video installation as the most optimal means for communication between the artist and the viewer. The article highlights the technical and technological innovation of JR’s video installation “Chronicles of San Francisco”: the artist’s approach to revealing several layers of the issue of social isolation and solitude; equalizing the objects by using the same color and light exposure; supplementing the video image with “untold stories” of the sitters via an application for mobile phones; creating the overall composition dynamics of the arrangement of the 1206 figures and the background through visualization of different types and layers of solitude. The results of the study will be useful to art historians and students studying contemporary art and street art.