Unexpected Festival by JustKids
Fort Smith, Arkansas,
2016
American Heroes - OK Feed Mills Fort Smith, Arkansas. September 2016 Photograph: Guido van Helten
Created as part of the second edition of The Unexpected arts festival organized by 64.6 Downtown and curated by Charlotte Dutoit of Justkids. The artwork explores themes around the American Hero, National myth and it’s context in modern American communities.
The design features three local residents symbolic of the traditional frontier characters. The triptych piece titled, American Heroes includes Kristina a young business owner in town Ed, a Navajo man who is an active member of the Lawbreakers & Peacemakers reenactment group, and Gene Beckham a WWII Veteran and recent lifelong employee who retired in 2016 from the OK Foods, Inc., which owns the towering feed mill this piece was created on. These three people who are depicted on a monumental scale suggest the heroes and heroines of a modern story, forming larger-than-life personalities that speak to the character of its inhabitants.
Photographs by Guido van Helten
Project Details
Project
Unexpected Festival by JustKidsLocation
Fort Smith, ArkansasCommissioner
Unexpected Fort Smith, JustkidsShot and edited by Raymesh Cintron for Justkids Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. September 2019
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