Tell us what to buy, follow, and believe, Oh Shepherd. The shepherd guides us. He leads his followers, his flock, and cuts the trail for cool. Under his guidance, we know that plumbing the depths of propaganda and photographic history is o.k. for our personal benefit; decisions can be made to alter public property and content without thought of recourse. This all despite that for the cult icon finding that danger lurks around the bend in the guise of copyright enforcers regarding his own acclaimed work. Indeed, Shepherd Fairey does rely heavily on appropriation. I think most of his work was taken or borrowed from somewhere. Adapting images to our own uses may be common in contemporary art, part of a mindset that spans our culture in music, science, and art, but wow, this guy really doesn't generate much of his own source material.
I was lucky enough to be able to see Shepherd Fairey's mid career retrospective in Boston not too long ago. Actually, I am REALLY lucky to have a girlfriend out east who caters to my creative curiosities when I travel to visit her. Anyway, there we were in Boston, a gray cloudy day, and up above looming overhead was the giant graphic of OBEY, Andre the Giant's visage altered and stylized by the artist. Poor Andre, losing his cult status to those of us who remember his bad ass pro wrestling persona, and becoming a stand in for another pop icon, one known in street art and fashion as OBEY. In a way it is fitting to look up and see his blank ambivalent stare looking out because it serves as a marker for the artist who resides in the galleries of the building below, the Institute for Contemporary Art on the Boston shoreline.
The show contains any number of takes on the Andre face, so many as to seem repetitive or exhausting. I have to say that Fairey has a way of layering and composing his work that is truly marvelous. The surfaces are crackly and crisp with layer upon layer of newspaper collage, spray paint, hand working and even more layering of his own characteristic patterns on paper. Over time, he has created a pantheon of graphic exploration, all stemming from his love of apropos and the face of the Giant. One thing of note that I was particularly inspired by was his use of stenciling materials, chipboards and rubylith. Not only is he presenting art, he is presenting stencil materials as art, thus creating no waste in his process as he stocks art shows with his discarded worn out xacto cut relics. I found those pieces some of the most engaging since it reflects a respect for the materials which is something most unique. The works are rich and alive, loaded to the hilt with fuel for our dissent; declaring peace over war and a new order of flower power hanging as a rose in the muzzle of so many guns.
Still, when you encounter amidst these peace slogans so much cynicism and targeted puns, not to mention commercialism, you begin to wonder if talking the talk actually has any effect besides allowing the artist to look at himself contently in the mirror. Making art about war never stopped it from happening after all, look at Goya, Callot, or Daumier. Fairey's work is more akin to the Chapman Brothers who took original Goya prints in their piece "Insult to Injury" and defaced them with face paint on many of the figures in the gruesome works. They merely made it a joke that art can survive so long as record of violence, and yet it can have no effect on the cause. I don't want to really challenge Shepherd Fairey's talent, his work is fantastic, but when I see a collection portraits of superstar rebels (Tupac, Biggie, Slick Rick, Joey Ramone), all who have capitalized on their aura of rebellion, I have to wonder if we do not see the same in Fairey himself. He does quite well for being seen as the street punk, while behind the scenes he has art shows, publishes books, produces OBEY paraphernalia of every sort, and generally finds ways to be the keenest business man in all aspects of contemporary culture. Let's not even get into the Obama image. He even had some really cheesy bling-bling objects in the art gift shop that truly didn't speak to me as street aesthetic. It was more like high end merch for the consumers who have to see the street elevated to the level of high art for them to consume it.
So what does all this mean? I'm not sure. Maybe just consume more of this artist's output. Buy stuff at stores that sell OBEY, ignore the irony and swipe your debit card. Go to Saks and buy things simply to get a bag that will end up below your sink with the other bags you don't need or reuse. He might be an artist pushing a really vital anti-war message, and one that sort of challenges our blind consumerism, but he also represents that which he tries to fight. You CAN have it both ways, and Fairey surely does. Could he have set it up better to get arrested at his own opening? It might have sucked seeing as it was his night, but talk about a cementing occurrence to keep you on top of the food chain for a while longer. What I guess aggravates me when thinking about this artist is that he comes off in one way, as the street rebel, and the other as a corporate giant in design. One side stands for what is right no matter how the odds are stacked against him. The other, does campaigns for some of the biggest corporations around. Maybe it's just the fact that he can live this double life and be so successful at it and we all sit and wonder about it, and then go out and buy something of his just to think that we have a piece of this phenomena. We do obey, we buy it hook, line and sinker.
If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend it. The show is at ICA Boston.
http://www.icaboston.org/
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