This week I went to Boston to attend the opening party of Shepard
Fairey's 20 year retrospective at the
ICA. This event was sponsored by
Karmaloop, a Boston
street wear boutique which pumps out it's community's perspectives online with its own "TV" channel and its in-your-face,
for us
by us, mixed media shopping site.
Prior to the party I had the rare opportunity to sit in on a lecture at the Harvard School Of Design. The speaker was Albie Sachs, and the lecture over-viewed the revolutionary art and
architecture that makes up the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
Sachs, an equal rights attorney and activist, had been incarcerated and nearly
assassinated for his beliefs and actions during the South African
Apartheid. In 1990 he took an active part in the negotiations which led to South Africa becoming a constitutional democracy. After the first democratic election in 1994 he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court.
In addition to his work on the Court, he has traveled to many countries sharing the South African experience in healing divided societies. He has also been engaged in the sphere of art and architecture, and played an active role in the development of the Constitutional Court building and its art collection on the site of the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg.
While the art reflects the work of the broadest spectrum of South African contributors, among others, much of it can be defined as “resistance art.”
The thread of my evening was becoming apparent. While Sachs spoke and showed slides of the Courthouse and it's many heartrending installations, I couldn't help but draw the obvious link to
Fairey's exhibition (which I was excited to be attending in about an hour).
Fairey's work is roughly based off both fascist regimes' and freedom movements' propaganda. His exquisite versions of cultural icons and historical moments of
significance make the point loud and clear - media has a very real power and influence. The use of graphics, posters and art can incite both mass following or rebellion.
Fairey, the now big name artist, went for years as the
anonymous force behind the ever-present OBEY /
Andre The Giant campaign. The ubiquitous images of
André René Roussimoff were plastered
everywhere. The direct order to OBEY without any clear understanding as to
why the professional French wrestler was chosen to be
iconified by
Fairey, made the campaign even more intriguing.
Fairey told you that Andre the Giant had a posse...
...and when you traveled and saw the giant's face in every major city you went to, you had to believe that indeed
he did.
And as is evident in
Obama's case, once
Fairey declares it... it is so.
Unfortunately before
Fairey had a chance to enjoy a party celebrating his now widely accepted street art, he was picked up by Boston police on his way into the gallery.
"
Fairey was arrested Friday night in Boston on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art to DJ at a sold-out party kicking off
his first solo exhibition, “Supply and Demand.” Two arrest warrants had been issued Jan. 24 after police determined that he had tagged property in two locations with his street art campaign featuring Andre the Giant and the word "obey," said Boston police officer James
Kenneally." -LA Times (Feb. 7
th)
