I have been following the work of "obey giant," a.k.a. Shepard Fairy, since 1996 when he had a small gallery show in Santa Barbara. Actually the gallery showing was a secondary discovery, the initial discovery came from the posters he sparsely pasted on electric boxes surrounding my house, which was 2 blocks from the gallery. I was heavily into graffiti at the time, making trips down to Los Angeles just to check out the art, so I was immediately struck by the posters that came to be known as the "
obey icon" & the "giant icon."
I recall thinking that it wasn't real graffiti--it was cheating. It had become popular amongst some writers to tag "hello my name is" stickers and then throw the stickers up around town. This was viewed as complete bullshit because graffiti, and all the glory that came with being up, was about risking your ass to create art on the spot. Pasting posters seemed like an extention of the sticker philosophy and thusly total bullshit.
Despite all these beliefs the "obey icon" poster had a powerful impact. It tapped into anti-establishment rebeliousness that drove many of us to write. The statement was not to obey but to rebel against those that were telling you to do so. It was ironic propaganda but propaganda nonetheless--highly effective that created a large and loyal following.
As Shepard's work expanded from the "obey icon" he began to use other pop culture icons such as Public Enemy, Angela Davis, Ice-T, The Misfits, Jesse Jackson (w/afro), Sid Vicious, etc to promote the same underlying philosophy until the Obama "hope" poster. The "hope" poster is a sincere piece of propaganda that is supposed to inspire the viewer to believe Barak Obama is our hope for the future and we should vote for him as president. This marks a complete 180 degree shift in the politics of Shepard's work--after so many years of emphasizing rebelliousness he is now telling us to believe in the American political system and vote.
Now there are 2 ways to look at this. Perhaps Shepard is buying in to the idea of change from within and by electing radicals to the government our country will become what we want it to be. In order to buy this you have to believe that Barak Obama is a radical politician. I don't buy this.
While he may have once been a political radical by the very nature of running for president he will be shaped into a more populist/centrist candidate and thus will not retain the radical qualities that would align him with anti-establishment/revolutionary thinkers. Some may argue the point that I'm wrong in this statement but it is indeed true. A president is elected when he receives 51% of the vote. The strongest believers will vote according to party lines so it is the populist center, those willing to be swayed in either direction, that will determine who is elected. It follows naturally then that any candidate for office would, after winning the base over, become more populist to acquire these swing voters and win the election.
The other way to look at this is that Shepard's sold out. His prints have sold out; the most recent one within an hour of it's release on
obeygiant.com. Retailing for $35/print in an edition of 750, Shepard made $26,250 in 1 hour for 1 design. Considering there are usually several release during a month, his design studio services corporate giants, and he now has a successful clothing line, the guy is a millionaire. Naturally he's bought into the political system. The irony of the "obey icon" has evolved into the sincere propaganda of the hope poster and so marks the death of a movement. I say all of this being someone who has followed Shepard's work out of love and will continue to do so. No matter how logically I can argue his philosophical demise I am moved by his work.
I am not alone in seeing the irony of the "hope" poster in relation to Shepard's career. Below is a picture I snapped off last night with my phone, which inspired this piece and is worth all of these words.
