Interview with Julien Beneyton: "J-Roc - Queensbridge"

(58,5 x 136,5 inches - click on the image for larger size)

Julien Beneyton ain’t a street artist, He is a street witness. While studying at the Paris School of Art, he painted several scenes from the Paris everyday life. His will of discovering new things brought him to Poland, Mauritania, Netherlands and Morocco. As a hip hop fan, New York City was the place he needed to go. In 2006, he spent 3 months in the Big Apple, where he met J-Roc, in Queensbridge, and painted his portrait. Julien Beneyton shares that experience for queensbridge-international.blogspot.com.

Why did you choose QB during your trip?

Luckily somebody put me up in NYC during 3 months. It was a good opportunity to fill up my inspiration. I spent a lot of time walking. I liked Harlem, I was there often as my friend Francois lived there. I used to hang around Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens. I was alone, my English was weak. I took a lot of pictures, but I was careful.  I didn’t want to disturb people. There is a lot of places I wanted to see. I felt a lot of emotion when I saw Big L graffiti around the 140 street. I went also to Fulton street, Flatbush Av …

I always liked music from Nas, Mobb Deep, Cormega … My dream was to paint Queensbridge viewed from the inside, but it had to happen by itself, I didn’t want to create a specific topic. Like Prodigy says in Shook Ones Pt. 2 “They come around but they never come close to”. It was my case. I didn’t have any reason to go there actually, but also felt like a victim of my ignorance.

How was the collaboration with J-Roc?

My homey Francois was a photograph for the French magazine Radikal. He wrote a huge article in 3 parts about J-Roc. It was really interesting, real.  J-Roc was 23 years old back then. He told about his experience, his everyday life selling crack, memories, doubts, hate, … Then he got locked up and the article follows him in jail and outside. One night I told Francois how his article impressed me and that I would like to meet J-Roc because I was wondering how his portrait would look like. We met a few days later. We were chilling, talking about the article, QB, Rap. Then I told Jay I’m a painter and would like to paint his portrait. All the details and things that are important for him would help me to paint. He was listening to me. At first I was sure he would refuse, thinking it is boring. I showed him some of my paints, he liked it and said “OK, let’s do it”. One week later we walked through Queensbridge, J-Roc was telling us a lot of stories about QB. We met also some friends of him. He showed the place where he grew up with his big brother. Then we stopped in front of the Bridge. I took a lot of pictures. J-Roc wanted to look nice so we waited like 1 hour at his favorite barber shop but it was full. I took pictures of J with his niece who was there with us. I used it for another painting.

Once back to France I started to paint Jay in front of the Bridge. It was a lot of fun, but also very difficult. That’s always the case for big format, details require a lot of time and  energy. I spent like 3 month to paint the portrait. When I finished I sent a letter and a reproduction of the painting. J-Roc was proud of it. His moms put it in the living room.

What details did you want to show and what do they represent?

For Jay it was very symbolic to stand in front of the Bridge. For me it was perfect. One of the building in the back got 169 windows … The T-shirt you can see isn’t the one Jay wore that day, it doesn’t exist. I needed some red color on the painting, and wanted Jay to choose something personal to write on the t-shirt. He chose the number of his block. J-Roc wanted to be alone on the painting. After some time, I realized that if I could paint some people behind him, it would give a deeper impression. I insisted, asking who could I add, but he didn’t change his mind. He wanted to be alone because when he was in Rikers Island, a lot of people turned their back on him. That feeling was interesting, that’s why I added two guys behind him going away. That’s what they represent: his disappointment. You fall, but nobody cares.

What was your feeling being in Queensbridge?

I was like “I’m there, finally!”. It was like having a lot of pics passing through my mind. J-Roc was happy to show us the hood. I think I saw QB through a nice angle. What I saw was far from all the cliché like poverty, drugs, gangsters, which unfortunately really exist. Tension is close, the atmosphere can change in a second and can be very dangerous. You can also feel it’s like a closed vase, everybody knows each other, like in a village. By the way it made J-Roc laugh when I compared QB to a village… Anyway, that’s just the feeling of a French guy who stopped by. There are much more interesting opinions than mine about Queensbridge. It was already 6 years ago…

What are your future projects?

I live now in Amsterdam, at the Rijksakademie until the end of the year. I don’t know where life will bring me to. I work hard, try to organize my expositions the best I can. I don’t know if I’ll go back one day to Queensbridge, but I hope so. There is a lot to paint there. I’d like to see Jay again too. If I go to NYC it will be my priority.

If you wanna know more about Julien Beneyton and see his paintings, go to www.julienbeneyton.net