{"id":14095,"date":"2019-10-26T22:53:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T02:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=14095"},"modified":"2019-10-26T23:17:30","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T03:17:30","slug":"shepard-fairey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/10\/26\/shepard-fairey\/","title":{"rendered":"Shepard Fairey Returns To Providence: \u2018It\u2019s Pretty Punk Rock To Try To Unite\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shepard Fairey\u2014one of the most famous street artists in the world, known for his \u201cObey\u201d Andre the Giant graphics to his Obama \u201cHope\u201d posters\u2014has been in Providence this week to paint a mural on the Founder\u2019s League building at 91 Clemence St. to celebrate the work of the city\u2019s landmark arts center AS220.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my 100th mural,\u201d Fairey tells me. \u201cIt was important that I did this mural in Providence. This is where I started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with the mural, AS220 is hosting a pop-up gallery exhibiting Fairey\u2019s \u201cFacing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent,\u201d<\/a> which showcases 30 new screenprints and collages that survey his motifs from the past 30 years. It\u2019s on view at 233 Westminster St., Providence, from Oct. 25 to Nov. 16, 2019, open Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sales of the exhibition artworks as well as a $50 limited print of the mural will support AS220\u2019s $5 million All Access Campaign<\/a> to renovate and upgrade its flagship Empire Street complex. (More than $4 million has been raised in the campaign so far.)<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent” at AS220 pop-up gallery, Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 49-year-old Los Angeles artist first gained notice as a student at Rhode Island School of Design in 1989 when he began (illegally) plastering Providence\u2014and then the world\u2014with stickers featuring the wrestler (and actor in the 1987 film \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d) Andre the Giant. Later versions were addended with the word \u201cObey.\u201d Together they became Fairey\u2019s trademark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that getting people to question all the imagery they\u2019re inundated with daily was something that was actually somewhat important to, I think, the way people communicate, and the way people can either question the use of public space or just passively submit,\u201d Fairey told me in 2008. \u201cSo then that\u2019s why the idea of making an image that confronted people with the idea of obedience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s “Original Andre Artwork,” laminated Xerox and ballpoint pen, June 1989, in “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s 1989 “OG Sticker Sheet” xeroxed stickers in “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The art in \u201cFacing the Giant\u201d goes on to celebrate civil rights activists Angela Davis and Jesse Jackson, as well as Arab women after the anti-Islamic hysteria after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Prints critique capitalist greed, police violence, and wars (\u201cGreetings from Iraq: Enjoy a cheap holiday in other people\u2019s misery\u201d). One artwork warns: \u201cBig brother is watching you.\u201d Fairey satires American campaign fundraising: \u201cLegal bribery: It\u2019s not a dream! It\u2019s the American system! End corruption. Restore democracy.\u201d Prints from the past decade warn of an \u201cEarth Crisis\u201d due to global warming and oil spills.<\/p>\n

In a video shown before a talk at RISD on Oct. 21, Fairey said he\u2019s \u201clooking at the problems of abuse of authority, of loss of privacy, of unnecessary wars, of environmental destruction, of all sorts of biases\u2014race, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, religion. \u2026 I\u2019m pushing against injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey wheatpasting posters in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Oct. 20, 2008. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fairey\u2019s strikingly bold graphics ape styles and colors (red, black, white) of Soviet and Maoist propaganda, pop Che Guevara graphics, rock concert posters (\u201860s psychedelia, the Misfits skull), American money, and decorative Islamic-style patterns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of art is that it can be both pleasing and provocative simultaneously,\u201d Fairey told me in 2008. \u201cSo I always try to find a balance there, because I think people are more receptive to ideas if they on a gut level are moved by them. And you can move people with things that are very, very powerful and provocative, and you can move people with things that are beautiful, that soothe them in a way but then have something embedded in them that is maybe a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his talk at RISD on Oct. 21, Fairey recalled being radicalized by Providence police roughly breaking up a party in the city\u2019s old train tunnels by \u201cpepper-gassing the entire party.\u201d Fairey said, \u201cThat was when I witnessed it firsthand: unchecked authority abusing their power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s “Obey Bush One Hell of a Leader,” 2004, in “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the first decade of the 2000s, Fairey\u2019s art grew increasingly political to criticize the presidency of George W. Bush and the administration\u2019s misbegotten and failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. \u201cI think a lot of people were censoring themselves because Bush said you\u2019re with us or you\u2019re with the terrorists,\u201d Fairey tells me. \u201c\u2026There was an elimination of nuance and there was an elimination of dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then in the spring of 2008, Fairey created his historic red, white and blue Barack Obama \u201cHope\u201d poster. \u201cFor the first time, other than just protesting things,\u201d Fairey says, \u201cI saw an opportunity to support a mainstream candidate who, at least as a campaigner, seemed to be the opposite of Bush.\u201d Fairey saw Obama as a uniter, in favor of health care and protecting the environment. \u201cThere were a lot of problems I had with Obama\u2019s policies as president \u2026 but he was at least someone who had the right values, at least compared to where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s “Obama ‘Hope’ Portrait” at National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., during Obama’s first inauguration, Jan. 18, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""I<\/a>
“I would like to thank you for using your talent to support my campaign,” Barack Obama wrote in a Feb. 22, 2008, letter to Shepard Fairey in “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Obama poster marked a turning point in Fairey\u2019s career. Establishment institutions more fully embraced him. This led to “Supply and Demand,”<\/a> his first solo museum survey at Boston\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art in 2009. Though Boston police still arrested him that February as he was about to enter the exhibition\u2019s sold-out launch party and charged him with vandalism for illicitly pasting up posters and stickers around Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, I am in a place in my career where I can get sanctioned places,” Fairey said in July 2009<\/a> when he pleaded guilty. \u201cSo, it\u2019s not an issue I will ever have to worry about again. . . . There should be more public outlets for art.”<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s 2010 \u201cProvidence Industrial\u201d mural behind AS220\u2019s Empire Street complex, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the decade since, Fairey\u2019s street fashion clothing designs have exploded in popularity and he\u2019s increasingly created officially sanctioned murals around the world\u2014including designing the \u201cProvidence Industrial\u201d mural, painted by Johan Bjurman with assistance from E.F. O\u2019Donnell & Sons, behind AS220\u2019s Empire Street complex in 2010. For the 2015, United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, he installed a giant sphere mandala between the first and second floors of the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s “We the People: Protect Each Other” poster (left) held at the Boston Women\u2019s March of America, Public Garden, Boston, Jan. 21, 2017. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the Women\u2019s March that coincided with the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017, Fairey designed posters of heroic images of diverse women. Widely distributed\u2014published as advertisements in The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today and nearly 2 million more were freely distributed as posters across the country\u2014they became icons of the protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is an example of using the worst traits of humanity to get ahead,\u201d Fairey says. \u201c\u2026He knows fear, hate and jealousy are strong tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy response is universal humanity, to portray that universal humanity in a way that is undeniable,\u201d Fairey says. \u201cThe dominant [Trump] approach is to stimulate hate and division. \u2026 It\u2019s pretty punk rock to try to unite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey mural on the Founder\u2019s League building, 91 Clemence St., Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday and Tuesday, in collaboration with AS220, Fairey and his crew painted his 100th mural, on the back of the Founder\u2019s League building at 91 Clemence St. Fairey says he shares the values of AS220: \u201cArt should be accessible, it should be democratic, it should be empowering, it should be for the individual and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-story tall mural depicts Anjel Newmann, an alum of AS220 Youth, who\u2019s now the director of the teen arts program. \u201cPsychedelic geometry\u201d radiates from her portrait, which is surrounded by the words \u201cCreativity, Justice, Equity.\u201d On the right is a quote from Newmann: \u201cCreativity is the mechanism of self-liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me,\u201d Fairey says, \u201cshe\u2019s the perfect example of what AS220 is meant to do\u2014bring people into a creative world that gives them a lot of opportunity for expression and empowerment and then they want to feed back into that ecosystem as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey at “Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent,” AS220 pop-up gallery, Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey mural on the Founder\u2019s League building, 91 Clemence St., Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent” at AS220 pop-up gallery, Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey wheatpasting posters in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Oct. 20, 2008. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent” at AS220 pop-up gallery, Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey at “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s 2010 \u201cProvidence Industrial\u201d mural behind AS220\u2019s Empire Street complex, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent” at AS220 pop-up gallery, Providence, Oct. 25, 2019. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shepard<\/a>
Shepard Fairey at “Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand” exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, Feb. 3, 2009. (Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shepard Fairey\u2014one of the most famous street artists in the world, known for his \u201cObey\u201d Andre the Giant graphics to his Obama \u201cHope\u201d posters\u2014has been in Providence this week to paint a mural on the Founder\u2019s League building at 91 Clemence St. to celebrate the work of the city\u2019s landmark arts center AS220. \u201cThis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,100,105,112],"tags":[251,37,96,72],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14095"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14109,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14095\/revisions\/14109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}