In my opinion, one of the points of this class is to explore art that makes an impact on the city and its inhabitants while simultaneously engaging these same inhabitants within the art piece itself. We have seen this through many mediums, such as the piece on Warren Towers that incorporates portraits of different BU students in its façade, and Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds, which were handcrafted and given individual life to represent thousands of individual lives. Like Weiwei's interactive memorial readings of the names of those who have suffered, Lin's open-to-the-public playground of wave-like green hills. Like the millions of names graffitied onto walls and trains in cities all around the country, and the paint boxes that anyone can suggest a theme for and potentially get approved for. This social movement of art provides a medium for anyone to get involved and make an impact on the world. With his project, JR gives the people a way to get their faces up on a wall and make a statement, similar to graffiti but in a new and wordless manner.

These are the faces of various individuals, any and all who want to participate. All one must do is gather a group of no less than 5 participants and have a message that one is willing to share with the world and make an impact on others. In these faces, you can see emotion and personality. You can see diversity and yet unity. You can see an intense message that goes further than simply leaving your name on a wall so people will recognize it, a wordless message that makes people think about inequality and difference between culture and language and location. However, he makes it slightly unattainable by asking for $20 per picture, making cost $100 at a minimum with only financial aid for clearly stated financial issues. While this isn't exactly unachievable and a complete deterrent, it adds a reason not to do it, not to participate in the message and not to care. Not to mention that finding a location that is legal and being okay with plastering your own portrait on a potentially illegal space is deterrent enough. This is the big issue with street art and city art truly, it is something that is still not entirely seen as appropriate and acceptable. There are still signs like this:

I found this on the Boston University campus, a school that advocates for art, diversity, and creative expression, with a school of art and numerous artistic pieces contributed by students to the environment to lend an artistic flair to the place. These signs deter even the most creative and artistic citizens minds from contributing to the community. The mayor's stern message in "Style Wars" wasn't constrained to the ancient time or the racist connotations, it is still prevalent in today's society. Articles such as this show how prevalent the prejudice against it is in society today, and it keeps people from participating in projects such as JR's. I feel that although this project is interesting and meaningful, it is a bit ahead of its time, and it wouldn't necessarily be worth our while or possible to truly pursue this. In today's day and age, putting your face on a wall seems less appealing than putting your face on social media.