Street
Art is a highly controversial form of art in today’s world, yet can be related
to art from Roman times. More specifically, triumphal arches commemorating and
depicting achievements of the Roman Emperor. In other words triumphal arches
severed as a form of propaganda much like some Street Art. Both forms of art
are found outside in public places so it makes sense that they can serve as an
artistic form of propaganda. Street Art is more than bright colors sprayed on a
wall, meaning often lies within the images; it can be very influential and a
great way to express political beliefs that cannot be ignored.
Shepard
Fairey is probably one of the first artists that comes to mind, when thinking
about politics and Street Art. He
is responsible for the red, white, and blue image of Barack Obama with ‘hope’
written across the bottom. The
image was everywhere: on posters, stickers, and even T-shirts. Thousands of
people went to Fairey’s website to download the Obama image and use it for
their own sites.[i] President
Obama even wrote to Fairey: “your images have a profound effect on people,
whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of
your artwork and proud to have your support.”[ii]
How popular Fairey’s Hope became
might have come as a welcomed surprise, but that Hope became popular was inevitable. Fairey funded 300,000 stickers
and 500,000 posters to be printed and distributed.[iii]
Fairey
learned how effective well-placed stickers could be with his first image of
Andre the Giants face accompanied by the slogan, “Andre the Giant has a posse.”
The town paper and civic establishment gave their attention to the stickers,
which only encouraged more stickers to be made, then larger stickers, and so
on.[iv]
Andre the Giant turned into a franchise graffiti operation as propagandists
would send for a pile of stickers or print their own and put them up in their
towns overnight.[v] Fairey’s Original Andre Artwork was just a
starting point, which would eventually evolve into his Obey Icon Pole, a stylize close-up, cropped version of Andre the
Giant’s face accompanied by the word ‘obey.’[vi]
Fairey was initially inspire by John Carpenters film They Live in which a former pro wrestler acts as an unemployed
construction worker who discovers a totalitarian regime controlling human lives
with the help of a pair of sunglasses.[vii]
Fairey designed Obey Icon Pole in
2000, right around the time President Bush was coming in to office and Rudy
Guiliani’s zero-tolerance, clean-up the streets campaign. Fairey felt that
under Bush’s regime people were supposed to obey without question, that his
regime reduced U.S. civil liberties.[viii]
During
George W. Bush’s presidency, Fairey turned to making art that expressed his
opposition to war. He designed Greetings
from Iraq, which says, “Enjoy a cheap holiday in other peoples misery,”
2007. Fairey’s iconic figure with a gas mask made its appearance.[ix]
Fairey began pairing images of war and commercialism with an intricate star
pattern. By no accident, the tiled star pattern took on an Islamic appearance.[x]
Fairey put fangs on an image of President Bush as if President Bush is a wolf
in sheep’s clothing and guess who the sheep would be? In Fairey’s mind, the
sheep would be every U.S. citizen. Fairey, clearly unhappy with the Bush
administration, said that Street Art was meant to be made in anger, as an act
of rebellion.[xi] Fairey’s earlier
work easily supports his statement, as well as most other Street Artist’s art
dealing with politics. Hope set Fairey apart from other Street
Artists because it supported Obama. However, Hope goes against the idea that Street Art is only about rebellion
and must be done in anger, in a sense Fairey is still acting as a
nonconformist.
Unfortunately
for Fairey, Hope might be supportive
in nature but it brought the authorities down on him for copyright
infringement. Mannie Garcia took a photograph of Obama and George Clooney while
working freelance in Darfur in 2006. Fairey used this photograph to depict a
successful presidential campaign, but because Garcia was working freelance at
the time he took the photograph, the rights to the photograph belonged to
Garcia alone. Initially the Associated Press made the threat to sue Fairey, but
could not because the rights to the photograph did not belong to them. Garcia
could still press charges though. Fairey openly admitted using the photograph
that was like some many other photographs of Obama: iconic and generic.[xii]
It is both scary and saddening to
think that someone like Fairey, who encourages people to use his images, should
be punished for using a photograph and changing it to make it their own. The
lawsuit against Fairey corroborates any ideas of the authoritative nature of
our society. Fairey will not be backing any presidential candidate for the 2012
election, but he will be building a body of work that focuses on former U.S.
presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan.[xiii]
Ultimately
Shepard Fairey wants to reach people, express ideas shared by many people in our
nation. Street Art is just one way that Fairey uses to accomplish his goal, but
it is a way that is nearly impossible to avoid. Fairey has a very commercial
approach to Street Art. Other Street Artists take a less commercial approach,
but reach influential levels equal to or greater than Fairey. Bansky, for
instance, is the most well known Street Artist but takes a much less commercial
approach to Street Art and manages to get his political beliefs across to the public
just as easily.
[i] Martha Lufkin, 2011. "Fairey
and Associated Press settle on Hope." Art Newspaper 20, no. 221: 5. Art
Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed September 28, 2012).
[ii] Eleanor
Mathieson and Xavier A. Tapies, Street
Artists: The Complete Guide (London: Graffito, 2012), 91.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Martha
Lufkin.
[v] Ibid.
[vi]
Ivan Gaskell, 2009. "Shepard Fairey." Artus no. 26:
42-43. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2012).
[vii] Martha
Lufkin.
[viii] Eleanor
Mathieson and Xavier A. Tapies, (91).
[ix] Ibid. 90.
[x] Ibid. 91.
[xi] Martha
Lufkin
[xii] Lisa
Cartwright, and Stephen Mandiberg. 2009. "Obama and Shepard
Fairey: The Copy and Political Iconography in the Age of the Demake."
Journal Of Visual Culture 8, no. 2: 172-176. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson),
EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2012).
[xiii]
Anny Shaw. 2011. "Stick 'em up: Shepard Fairey's poster
art." Art Newspaper 20, no. 226: 66. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson),
EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2012).
