The Hills Have Eyes

I’ve always loved the concept of using the surface of architecture as a canvas. Many of my architecture projects in undergrad involved buildings clad with large video billboards. Photographer JR turns an entire Rio favel community into a cubist-inspired canvas. This reminds me of my trip to La Boca, a poor neighborhood in Argentina painted with primary colors. It instantly functioned as a design technique to bring in tourists. With JR’s work, the question is whether the contrast of art and slum architecture becomes a spectacle.