Talk:Shepard Fairey
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Is this a PR piece. There is certainly a lot of criticism of fairey in the art world that deserves some inclusion here.
- This article gives no undue or unbalanced praise to Fairey. Granted there is certainly criticism that is not contained within, but that's the critic's job to add. LockeShocke 00:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] My paper on Shepard Fairey
I wrote a paper on Fairey for an art class. If any passer-by would like to chop it up and throw some information into the article, go ahead. LockeShocke 00:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
- Shepard Fairey is a modern graphic designer whose work is heavily inspired by graffiti and street art. Growing up in Los Angeles, where gangs and graffiti are near-ubiquitous, Fairey’s surroundsings probably had an impact on his artistic vision (Wikipedia).
- As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Fairey began his “experiment in Phenomonology”: the Andre the Giant has a Posse sticker campaign. (Since, the original image has evolved into the “Obey Giant” campaign.) Fairey admits that the sticker itself means nothing. The real purpose was to study how, in culture, the sticker would catch on and spread.
- Fairey contends that people are seldom, if ever, bombarded with advertisements for products that are not immediately apparent. Because the omnious stylized portrait of Andre the Giant is so ambiguous and devoid of purpose, the viewer is intrigued more than they would be by a regular advertisement (Fairey, 2002).
- Fairey, in addition to his giant pieces, creates other works that are reminiscent of propaganda, using ominous imagery in a tongue-in-cheek assault on authority. In his piece More Militerry Less Skools, he continues his mock-attacks against government. Fairey uses a very straightforward approach to delivering his message: by using bold, unmistakeable type. The message communicated in this piece–’more military, less schools’–most every viewer would disagree with. He continues to offend by misspelling ‘schools’ as skools, implying the creator of the poster (the government) doesn’t even care enough about schools to spell the word right. He misspells military as well–ironically, the government is misspeling the very name of the institution it is advocating.
- A representation of a sinister Big Brother character appears at the top of the poster, and a moire motif, immitating money, is used in the background. A seal appears at either upper corner. Finally, the obey logo and slogan, “Obedience is the most valuable currency,” fall at the bottom of the piece. The money motif sets in stone that the target of the satire is the government, and the obey tag and slogan at the bottom–aside from serving as Fairey’s calling-card–give the audience a final chill as they move to the next piece.
- This piece also succeeds in being senseless, ambiguous, and a social experiment. What kind of response does this piece ellicit from the audience? Fairey, himself, is looking for that very answer, and once the audience questions first the work and then his or herself, he has succeeded.
- Who is this Big Brother character? Who could possibly be advocating more military and less schools? The seals in the corners would imply it is meant to represent the United States itself... is there a person Fairey believes is the personification of this and other destructive ideologies?
- Who are we to obey?
