“Question Everything,”
then Obey!
This past Spring, I saw a Shepard Fairey exhibit at the local art museum: Shepard Fairey: Facing The Giant: 3 Decades Of Dissent.
I didn’t pay to enter the exhibit.
Shepard Fairey no doubt has a seminal presence in street art — that is, art in public space — in sticker culture, in wheatpaste postering and in muralism. But, he’s also problematic as fuck — problematic to “fair use”, to social movements — and to art itself. I want to be more precise and say: he has an ejaculative presence in art in public space: his stuff is ubiquitously and frequently splattered — and sticky in the public consciousness — like a true Mad Men, note Ad men and marketers and PR consultants are not artists: they are not even tricksters — they are influencers, marketeers, cons, liars and grifters.
Fairey perhaps most famously helped to elevate Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign with his iconographic HOPE image — Fairey, (perhaps) like tens of millions of us, including myself, bought into Obama’s community organizer/activist history and “hope and change” schtick back in 2008. The shame and pain of decades of systemic, racialized disenfranchisement and inequity were transformed into an incredible electoral energy that was earnestly and hopefully deposited into Obama’s candidacy and presidency; it was then almost immediately disregarded and wasted — and ultimately, profoundly regretted by progressives. Only after his first term was nearly complete did “we” learn and process that Obama was a neo-liberal capitalist centrist cloaked in folksy voice and progressive-populist clothing — we witnessed him betray us again and again — and become a prolific drone-strike-executioner-in-chief as well as Wall Street’s and Rahm Emanuel’s punk-ass bitch.
I want to be more precise and say: he has an ejaculative presence in art in public space: his stuff is ubiquitously and frequently splattered — and sticky in the public consciousness.
The Obama HOPE image stands as a reminder and a joke of hope placed in any Democrat or Republican politician — any. Thank you for that, truly, Shepard Fairey.
But, some among us may still not know — that Fairey had misappropriated the photograph on which the iconic Obama HOPE poster was based, without credit or compensation to the copyright holder — falsely citing “fair use” — Fairey subsequently destroyed evidence about the actual unfairness of his use which amounted to theft, fraud and obstruction. Fairey settled with the copyright owner and also plead guilty for contempt of court.
Fairey has also reproduced and exhibited images of actual, bonafide Black power and liberation icons (Angela Davis notwithstanding) — and has been rightly interrogated about his cultural appropriation. On the surface, his work may pass as homage to great People and powerful movements, but it can also be interpreted as an artistic “black face” — and as an attempt to co-opt that which is not his in order to elevate his own vanilla, half-woke vibe — and of course, to cash-in. He remains defiant in his approach to cultural appropriation.
Curiously, Fairey cites “fair use” and uses and borrows images and imagery at will for his ‘art’ and profit — but vigorously protects his own derivatives and branding — a stunning and ridiculous irony given that Obey Giant — is essentially Andre The Giant’s image and vital stats coupled with the “Obey” message from the John Carpenter film “They Live” — they are literally the foundation of his entire brand and portfolio repertoire — entirely unoriginal.
This was too easy. Also, is this even Harris;
she’s almost unrecognizable?
All respect to the image editor/redactor who fairly-used and parodied this piece.
This is an actual example of dissent and subversion.
Fairey is pseudo-anti-something: anti-consumerism? anti-establishment? anti-war? Nah. He’s also pseudo-pro-something: pro-peace, pro-liberation, pro-democracy? Nah.
He doesn’t fully or convincingly execute in his art.
Fairey isn’t a great artist, but rather, supreme at derivation, amalgamation, re-constitution, iconography, and branding.
I personally find his work so very — tepid. Boldly, proudly and weirdly tepid, even. His work is not substantive of authentic dissent and subversion, he stops short of dissent and subversion — in that he tries to flirt with dissent and subversion but he’s too timid and never actually fucks (with) it.
Fairey has made a fortune from regular releases of small-batch signed and limited edition posterwork, mass print releases and large scale commissions — and he also raises money for some inarguably worthy initiatives and causes. He has cultivated a fanboy following among a certain type — the homogenized Boomer or Gen X liberal who thinks they’re edgy — or who used to be punk (for a minute, once — a very long time ago); and admittedly, he has built a platform for collaborating with talented photographers, screen print artists and artist-activists. Yet, his own ‘original’ solo work and praxis remain decidedly consumer, predictable and permissibly political; his art technique will likely never evolve beyond his reliance on photo-editing, heavily stylized graphics and background, and injection of simplistic text and symbolism that strives for anarchism, esotericism and exoticism.
“Question everything” — lol.
****
Upon seeing Fairey’s Kamala Harris “Forward” image — his on-brand depiction of the Sheryl Sandberg leaning-in, girl bossy boss, multi-racial top cop who was duplicitously elevated to Democratic presidential nominee without a primary, someone who is heading into nomination this week with ZERO published policy positions and who supports continuing arms shipments to Israel for the genocide of Palestinian People —
FORWARD is as empty
as HOPE and MAGA.
She said, “Obey
* — or else.
and shut the fuck up, I’m speaking.”
Full Disclosure: I bought a Shepard Fairey/Obey Giant release in 2012 — a collaboration with Aaron Huey flowing from Huey’s long-term photographic documentation work with the Lakota People of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation— the most acutely impoverished place in the United States. Huey re-illuminating for European Americans the US government’s unceasing violation of signed Treaties and incursions into and annexations of the Lakota’s unceded land in the Dakotas and Black Hills.
I acquired the print specifically because of photographer and photo-journalist Aaron Huey’s participation and also, to support Huey’s organization “Honor The Treaties” which has since evolved into a diffusion known as “Amplifier Art”. I was and remain deeply affected by Aaron Huey’s TedTalk: “America’s Native Prisoners of War”.
the limineen | earthling, poet & crone 