A Vision of Manga for Your Inner Child
“Machado de Assis was basically turned into a blond guy with blue eyes,” said José Vicente, head of the University Zumbi dos Palmares, named for the 17th-century leader of a Brazilian slave rebellion.
His school is leading the project as part of an effort to “reconstruct these black people from Brazilian history who over time became whitened or had their work forgotten,” he said. “I think this project shows just how deep and powerful racism can be, but also the importance and necessity of recognizing black culture not just for the black community, but for all humanity. I think it’s necessary for our country — Brazil — to know itself.”
The project, called Machado de Assis Real (The Real Machado de Assis), encourages readers to download and print the new image and features posts on Instagram of students pasting it on top of existing ones in their books, with the hashtag #machadodeassisreal.
Mr. Matos hopes that publishers will begin to use the new image on book covers.
“Our goal is that one day you can go onto Google image search and only see images of Machado de Assis as a black man,” he said.
For black students involved in the project, like Mayra Salles, it is an effort to change how future generations of black Brazilians consider themselves.
“My hope is that people like me won’t have to deny or erase the color of their skin,” said Ms. Salles, 26. “This project is an alert to the world: We are here and we won’t take any step back. We are preparing ourselves to no longer tolerate the violence and discrimination that comes from racism.”
PARIS — Pharrell Williams has found a happy place for his inner child, and it is a manga-style fantasy in which children have taken up arms. That is the gist of “A Call To Action,” an exhibition the American singer, producer and entrepreneur has curated for the Guimet Museum, a collection of Asian art in Paris.
The show, on display through September 23, was created at Mr. Williams’s invitation by Mr., a 49-yearold Japanese artist known for his colorful work inspired by the manga and anime traditions.
The single-room exhibition is bright and deliberately chaotic: Visitors step onto plastic sheets splashed with paint, with blocks of concrete and drawings scattered around the floor. Large-scale paintings and figurines are dwarfed by even larger graffiti and neon signs. The main figures in this post-apocalyptic scene are young boys and girls, and most of them are carrying multicolored guns.
Mr. Williams is a collector of Mr.’s work, which “just seems like it’s from the point of view of a perpetual teenager,” the singer said in mid-July. “If a person is disconnected from their inner child, they will see this work and wake up.”
Mr. said the exhibition imagines an international revolt led by the young generation. “Children have been driven out of their homes, they have lost their parents and they must survive. They do everything they can not to be killed,” Mr. explained. A quote from William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” greets visitors at the entrance: “We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?”
Mr. produced the work over five years in response to a pitch from Mr. Williams, who described his vision. “What is the future and how do we get there? If we didn’t get there, what would prevent us?” The answer to the last question was “the bad decisions of grown-ups,” on a range of issues including climate change and the lack of gun regulation in the United States, he said.
Mr. Williams’s role was vaguely defined. A curator usually selects the work and arranges it for display. Mr. suggested that he had handled these aspects of the creative process. “Pharrell provided me with the theme,” he said. “From that point on, I had no precise instructions about the details.”
Mr. Williams and Mr. were introduced by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. In 2014, Mr. co-directed the manga-style music video for Mr. Williams’s song “It Girl.” Mr. also produced a series of figurines modeled on the singer.
Mr. rose to prominence in the early 2000s as part of Kaikai Kiki, an art collective founded by Mr. Murakami. He was featured in Mr. Murakami’s “Superflat” exhibition, which inspired an artistic movement of the same name.
Superflat’s vivid two-dimensional manga-inspired images are rooted in Japan’s “otaku” culture, said Melissa Chiu, the director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. “Otaku” refers to fans with obsessive interests, or “young people who are somewhat entranced with computers and popular culture.”
Mr. has translated his interest in this nerdy subculture into increasingly personal art. Screens dotted around the exhibition in Paris show footage of everyday activities shot by Mr. on his smartphone, a way, he explained, of juxtaposing reality with the defiant childlike figures he created.
Mr. Williams said he was putting his faith in the young generation that “A Call To Action” is dedicated to. “I think our generation continues to fail, but I really do believe the millennials and Gen-Zers will make better decisions.”