Most people know Shepard Fairey because of the Obama campaign, and the retro look of his now famous red and blue Obama Hope posters, largely reminiscent of Russian propaganda. But it seems these days he is everywhere in the pop-punk-rock world, making posters of rock legends and designing prints for new albums like it was a natural requisite.
Matador records will be giving away one of the Shepard Fairey signed silkscreened prints per day to customers who order the new Interpol album:
Shepard Fairey first caught the public eye in the 90’s thanks to his OBEY sticker street campaign, and if you live in any large city in the US (or anywhere else in the world as a matter of fact), you probably can still spot some stickers of ‘Andre the Giant’ somewhere in the streets.
But Shepard is a clever character, everything he does has a specific logic, and behind his sticker campaign was the intention ‘to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings’, something he describes as Heidegger’s Phenomenology.
I was indeed very curious when I saw this sticker everywhere in the streets, I could not understand what it was about, looking for a meaning whereas there was none.
Shepard does not do much street art now, but he owns a studio ‘Studio Nº One’ in Echo Park, and has done many covers of rock albums such as, Anthrax (‘The greater of two evils’, 2004), Black eyed peas (‘Monkey business’, 2005), Smashing Pumpkins (‘Zeitgeist’, 2007), Flogging Molly (‘Whiskey on a Sunday’, 2006), Led Zeppelin (‘Mothership’, 2007), Billy Idol (‘The Very Best Of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself’, 2008), Various Artists (‘New Tales To Tell: A Tribute To Love And Rockets’, 2009), Sage Francis (‘Li(f)e’, 2010), and the self-titled album of the Stone Temple Pilots (2010).
With his acclaimed stencil technique, he also has made portraits of almost every pop-punk-rock icon known to mankind. Prints of Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Joe strummer, Iggy Pop, Elvis Presley, Nico, Debbie Harry, Smokey Robinson, Neil Young, Henry Rollins, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Jett, Bad Brains, Ian Mackaye, The Ramones, Chuck D, Ringo Star, Lennon, MacCartney (and I must have forgotten a few) can be bought on his website http://obeygiant.com/
Now the iconic black and white face above the OBEY red-white letters seems to be a familiar object to own in the new hip generation, and Shepard Fairey has developed a whole business based on it, as you can find not only posters and stickers but an OBEY clothing line which is sold in malls and up-scaled stores. This symbol meant to represent some kind of underground culture and a vague rebellious statement has become a trendy thing to wear those days.
This is where people began to criticize him, after all his work is full of anti-war imagery and big brother references (he has even illustrated George Orwell’s ‘1984’) but also what it seems to be an anti-capitalism imagery, as he has represented a giant dollar bill with ‘In lesser gods we trust/OBEY’ written on it!
It’s still confusing for people because his work tends to be politicized and directed against establishment whereas he has worked for major corporations and companies. But Shepard has no problem with that, he has explained this allows him not to worry about making a living as an artist and he has declared he has never been against capitalism:
“Some people look at my work and go: ”Oh, it’s condemning capitalism”. No, not at all, I’m a capitalist. I believe in capitalism, I believe it motivates people, that competition is good. I believe it can be ruthless; there should be good checks and balances for it, but the best checks and balances are the consumers themselves, not some sort of government regulations”.
He says that his work is more about questioning, questioning everything, every picture that we are bombarded with, since images are emotionally able to indoctrinate people, and very fast they become a symbol, an untouchable icon, which was exactly his point with his Obey campaign.
The rock stars he has chosen to represent are people who inspired him, people who did it their own way, as he did it too.
And he puts his art in the right place, last week you could see his black and yellow posters in the LA streets with the ‘Buy Love Here’ slogan on it, an ad for fictional rock star Russell Brand’s shop, where for one day money had no currency: you could exchange unwanted things for other things at The Beverley Center, the heart of expensive consumerism in Los Angeles.