April 24, 2015 By Christian Murray
A French artist who has been pasting giant photographs of recent immigrants on New York City walls has put two up in Sunnyside.
The artist, called JR, photographed 16 immigrants and used their images to paste on walls. His method is to take a photo, print it on strips of paper and then affixing it to a wall.
JR has posted his work in 16 locations—throughout the five boroughs—with two going up on the exterior of the Sunnyside branch library. The Sunnyside images, which went up Thursday night, were the only ones to go up in Queens.
JR’s work will be featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine this Sunday.
Joseph Schiavone, the Sunnyside branch library manager, said that JR and his crew scouted the neighborhood and thought the library walls made for a good canvas.
Schiavone said that he then worked with Queens library officials and was able to get the concept approved quickly.
Residents will have to come out fairly quickly to see the images since they will disintegrate—given they are made of paper. Schiavone said that the paper is already chipping off and that after a couple of rain storms they will most likely be gone.
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