Art as Radical Act: Teenagers Revisit Diversity and Social Justice through JR’s Giant Baby

Abstract

In this article I share ways that I have used the artworks of contemporary artists to encourage middle school students to reflect on the concepts of diversity and social justice. This paper describes my use of an artwork called “Kikito (Tecate, Mexico-USA, 2017),” a work in the Giant series by a French artist JR. When I shared images of this artwork with students, the participating teenagers discussed this public art piece verbally as well as through texting via social media. They then created artworks based on their reflections. Although the quality of student outcomes varied in both the text-based discussions and drawing activity, they clearly showed that the Giant Baby project and JR’s stories deeply engaged the students in a critical examination of the U.S./Mexico relationship and sparked their interest in the role of the visual arts as a source of social justice and systematical change.