Have you seen the giant, slightly disconcerting stair-level faces being plastered across stoops near Bergen Street and 4th Avenue in Park Slope? They're kind of hard to miss, but where did they come from? We did a little digging, and discovered, of course, it's not only in the name of art, but in the name of getting a giant cash prize!
Turns out the giant posters are part of a project called "Inside Out," which encourages participants to "Upload a portrait. Receive a poster. Paste it for the world to see." Fair enough, but what's more interesting is the man behind the project: semi-anonymous French street JR, whose previous large-scale face pieces have appeared in conflict-ridden areas like the favelas of Rio de Janiero and the wall separating Palestine from Israel. JR won a $100,000 TED prize last year to "use art to turn the world inside out," which apparently includes pasting up the well-manicured stoops of Park Slope.
According to Brownstoner, ten stoops have been face-ified in the past week, and it appears that the faces are those of local business owners. No word yet on how the Sidewalk Etiquette Police in the neighborhood have reacted.
