The medium is the message? The money is the message?
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Last Modified: January 23, 2008 Issue: January 2008 |
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Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey: A critique by artist Mark Vallen.
The link above, in my opinion holds some powerful ideas that defeat any carcass counter debate to try to salvage the great ICON, Sheppard Fairey’s OBEY GIANT “reputation”.
Perhaps Obey’s humble beginnings with his sticker street campaign had no hidden agenda but it certainly has evolved and blossomed to become something that resembles a multi-national.
The idea that “the medium is the message” has been altered to serve something closer to “I’m a capitalist monster and nothing can hold me back because I believe, and most importantly, my fans believe my lies”. The bottom line has become, “The money is the message”.
* Source: Art For a Change
OBEY is now a multi-million dollar industry whose focus is on clothing and any other item that can hold a logo. Shameless mass promotion and mass production (in sweatshop environments) has brought Fairey’s product to the mecca of mass consumption, to dance in the long corridors of Walmart.
I’m ashamed to share this so called graffiti platform with some one like Fairey but I don’t wish him harm and I don’t believe he should stop promoting creativity and design. When I see one of his “graffiti” posters in the streets of Barcelona, I feel that I’m looking at a brand like any other brand and I feel sad that kids believe the campaign is -the shit-. In that sadness my wish list simply includes a need for him to pull off that mask and reveal the true face of what is an industry. No more Punk references in interviews, no more art talk and hiding behind the word graffiti, no more putting a spin on the “art” that is essentially a slightly altered stolen image that then is calls his own.
* Source: Art For a Change
If you’re a capitalist rock star then be it. If you’re a pop artist, then be a pop artist and say you’re a pop artist. Reference with skill and be humble because, I know, as a professional artist, that Obey’s artistic and creative skills are limited. I always felt uncomfortable when I saw Sheppard’s work and as a kid, I could never put my finger on it. The link above put it all in perspective for me.
mejuan I'm an independent artist seaching for freedom with in the system
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The political print artist Josh MacPhee has posted his own critique of Fairey which is in part a response to Vallen. MacPhee says that from a political perspective, the issue of copyright is a non-starter. What more concerns him is the appropriation and privatisation of what are essentially social goods:
I believe Fairey exemplifies in many ways the operational model of capitalism. He extracts resources, largely from political struggles of Third World and working class people, and then slightly processes those resources (images), commodifies them (strips them of any history or relationship to where they came from), and sells them on the market. Like capitalism he simultaneously sells high-art versions to wealthy elites and then cheaper mass-commodity versions to the very same communities he is taking images from. This is how the making of all corporate products works.
MacPhee notes that many of the images that Fairey appropriates were created by anonymous artists engaged in struggle. Fairey that creates work he places under copyright, selling versions of it on t-shirts or some other commodity: “It is unfortunate that Fairey is attempting to personally capitalize on the generosity of others and privatize and enclose the visual commons (as seen by the prominent copyright symbols on his website and products).” As MacPhee reiterates, “But once again, this is the machinations of capitalism, not simply Fairey as an individual.”
Fairey’s work takes old advertisements and old propaganda posters and repurposes them to highlight the manipulation being carried out through visual media. His style’s been called “absurdist propaganda” for a reason. One that’s apparently lost on people who see the original pieces of propaganda and think “he stole!” Well, duh. But look at the repurposing. On the “gun” images, the original propagandist is trying to arouse your feelings to want to go off to war and fight for “your country (=some leader).” Fairey turns that line of thinking on its ear. In the Yellowstone piece, you have your government (National Park) telling us Yellowstone is a wonderful, magical place. In Fairey’s piece, he’s shedding light on the fact our government is telling us things in Iraq are better than they really are. See? Repurposing propaganda to illustrate the absurdity within or without.
Mark Vallen is simply trying to jumpstart his go-nowhere career by bashing someone who actually HAS one. It’s a time-honored tradition among the second-rate and failing. The fact that he passed out literature– including HIS OWN ART– amongst those standing in line at Fairey’s show ought to tell you he’s simply an opportunist out to raise his own profile. If he were truly interested in constructive dialogue he would have picked up the phone and made the local call to Fairey to ask him about it. Then, if he wasn’t satisfied with the answers– or at least wanted to include them– he could have offered up the other side of the coin. Instead, he posted a shrill call of “Look at Me!” in hopes of selling a few more canvases of his Jr. High caliber artwork. Pretty sad, really.
Next time, dig a little deeper before disparaging someone’s art– something Mark Vallen also should have done.
Did you read the MacPhee piece? He takes no particular issue with Fairey stealing, per se. His more radical critique is that Fairey is using a method central to capitalism - appropriation and privatisation - for his own profit. Fairey was maybe once a dissident of some sort, but he is now simply obscuring the social history from which these images come. The copyright symbol liberally displayed on his own site is evidence of this.
I’d also ask that you examine your own attack on Vallen and the how you diminish your defence of Fairey with the ad hominem on the quality of Vallen’s art.
My response was in regards to the expansion of Vallen’s themes in the blog entry, above, and not in regards to anything MacPhee has written (or in regards to anything you have quoted from MacPhee).
Given MacPhee’s politics, the fact that he is critical (even “radically” critical) of anything having to do with working within a system– even if subtlety subverting it from the inside out– for one’s own enrichment, which Fairey is surely doing to his credit, doesn’t surprise me.
Your critique of my ad hominem on the quality Vallen’s art would be valid were it not for Vallen’s own ad hominem on the quality of Fairey’s (”can’t draw,” etc.), something I would have gladly said myself on his own site were he only brave or willing enough to allow the public to comment on the misguided statements found on his site.
Sadly, he seems neither brave nor willing, though I lean toward a lack of boldness as backed up by Vallen’s neglecting to call Fairey to ask for clarification of his work before posting his ill-thought-out screed.
I’ve got about as much art sense as a rock. With that disclaimer out of the way, I went and checked out Shepard Fairey’s website to see what all the fuss was about. I get what Mack is saying about the repurposing of propaganda as an illustration of absurdity, but this point also needs to be qualified by the clear - and sincere - attempt at the branding and marketing function of the site. At some point you have to concede that when dissent becomes an entrenched interest in its own right, it seizes to be dissent. You then have to ask the question, what are the values being tacitly supported with the repurposing of the original poster?
If Fairey began by ‘repurposing’, and thus critiquing, old communist, revolutionary, and state power posters - was he truly a dissenter of capitalism, or merely a libertarian masquerading as a ‘revolutionary’, in the vein of Ron Paul? Sounds to me like a good ol’ capitalist marketing gimmick reminiscent of the Che Guevara prints!
Mr. Cochrane! I believe what you have written has a very solid stance.
I respect your thought process and I identify with your ideas.
Thanks for your inspiration. …jc
Hi Mack. Great to hear from you on this topic.
I feel your passion and I understand your point of view. It’s as valid as Vallen’s and both should be respected. My point of view tends to dissolve the strong reputation of Fairey.
I’ve painted in the streets for years and what is very clear to me, is that Sheppard IS a double agent. The Obey campaign in the street plays on the idea that Sheppard is a “hard core” bomber with his fiery hateful eye on the capitalist system….. perhaps you don’t see it, but I know very well that Sheppard and the Obey campaigns are not who and what they are described to be. Mass production of his products destroys every bit of credibility he may have had with me. From my point of view, when you cross the invisible line onto a territory that offers mass production in sweat shops and the idea of outsourcing jobs for greater gains, then you become a member of a certain team. You can’t be a rebel punk, anti propaganda, anti capitalist, anti george w. and be a leading example of top ranked capitalism.
“Busted” plays a role in being a double agent. In my opinion, Obey is busted.
My wish list has several demands. I want and need for Sheppard to come clean. If he’s a pop artist, then be a pop artist and say “I’m a pop artist”. From that point,
reference with skill and be humble because, I know, as a professional artist, that Obey’s artistic and creative skills are limited. There’s nothing punk about what he does or what he stands for. It is time for him to pull off that mask and reveal the true face of what is an industry that hides the true values of the Obey campaign.
I need for “The medium is the message” statement to be taken off his web site because it is truly misleading. What started off as a campaign with no hidden agenda, has silently flipped to become the highest of high capital gains machine. My wish list includes a demand for no more bull shit art talk and hiding behind the word graffiti. No more putting a spin on the “art” that is essentially a slightly altered stolen image that then is called his own.
What I want is very simple and very appropriate at a time when lies are rampant.
I want the blanketing of truth to stop. That is what I ask for….. this sort of thing would mean the destruction of his corporation. He would loose his art rock star status, and his credibility with in the graffiti community would vanish, AND THAT, would be devastating.
That is why he would never do it. That is why he will never do it.
I’m ashamed to share this so called graffiti platform with some one like Fairey BUT I don’t wish him harm and I don’t believe he should stop promoting creativity and design. When I see one of his “graffiti” posters in the streets of Barcelona, I feel that I’m looking at a brand like any other brand and I feel sad that kids believe the campaign is -the shit-. In that sadness I offer you this link. Let me know what you think.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040301/buzzguru.html (fixed)
Mark Vallen is a hack.
Its propoganda written about faux propaganda that is referanced from actual propoganda. I love it
interesting enough, super touch has posted a response to all this obey plagarism:
http://www.supertouchart.com/2009/02/02/editorial-the-medium-is-the-message-shepard-fairey-and-the-art-of-appropriation/