Checking out the new Obey book from Shephard Fairey. It was a generous gift from Shephard after checking out their studio in Echo Park and catching up with old friend Joycie and Flo at Studio Number One. It covers 20 years of his art from 89-09.
Regardless of your opinion of his work, you can’t argue with the quality and volume of great work and the impact he has made on the culture at large.
There is a great quote from Banksy in the book that sums it up better then I could say it…
“I found the Obey Giant campaign repetitive and nauseating. I thought it wasn’t really what you could call “art”, because it didn’t change much and it was so overbearing on its surroundings. For some reason, that fucking face always seemed to jump out at you even from the smallest little sticker. But if you listen to house music for a straight 10 hours on drugs, the smallest little change becomes very significent. And after a while, you don’t ever want that music to change. Somehow, I got sucked into the wrestler’s fat little face and now I don’t want it to do anything else at all.
If Shepard Fairey comes to your town, every single graffiti writer gets uptight. We don’t like Shepard because he makes us feel scared and lazy. I am absolutely positive he has made more reaches than any graffiti writer in the history ever has done or ever will. And that means he’s won. Anyway, I once got to go gambling with his wife and she is very lucky.”
