Mr. Obey

Im talking about Mr Shepard Fairey. I have followed this artist for a long time. I even wrote him a couple letters. Personally, I like his style, and a fact that he is a fan of the band Clash, but what puzzles me the most is how he turned this rather flat and superficial method of art into something that elevated him to superstar status. Is political propaganda always repeating it self? Posters that resemble soviet propaganda posters cant be that significant of a tool for people to believe in. OR can they? since those days are gone and surely methods that essentially worked then shouldn't work in a modern day US of A. But they did. I remember years ago when he started wheat pasting his obey thing around DC and Andre the Giant was his big thing, people noticed and thought it deep and politically aware. Nixon was also on these posters, and I thought "great" this guy knows how to criticize the system, but it all changed when he did the famous Obama thing. It made me think that his art is not really perceiving the depth and significance of Obamas personality but rather the grandeur of his position. Yet the famous poster presented him as just another candidate who will give you hope but not life and depth. And in a way Shepard's art beautifully represented the plain flat truth that we all got dragged into, because the choices were quite obvious and plain. Go for the good well spoken candidate OR the other, less eloquent one..and his ditsy woman from Alaska. Its hardly something to ponder and reflect on. So it might be a good thing that Smithsonian chose this poster to be preserved in the vaults of this grand institution, for it shows how flat and somewhat shallow political world and world in general is becoming.

Maybe all us are becoming flat representations of ourselves....