|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
| home | photos | street art | archive | blog | search | links | copy | contact | info |
|
|
|||||||
Shepard Fairey Nineteeneightyfouria interviewGALLERY SHOW Obey (Shepard Fairey) has his first solo exhibition in London at stolenspace (Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane) from the 2nd to the 18th November 2007. STREET WORK Paste ups from across London in advance of the show opening. INTERVIEW Shepard interviewed before the opening of the show All photographs copyright artofthestate 2007 |
SHEPARD FAIREY - Interviewed prior to the NineteenEightyfouria show in London, November 2007 contd. Do
reactions in the UK to what you do differ from in the US?
“In the US it seems like I get people that are curious – they ask,
“what is that”, “are you like a skateboard company”. When I
explain the ideas they get excited but they don’t come up assuming that
it’s art. The interesting thing that I’ve noticed in the UK - and
maybe it’s because of Banksy – is that when I’ve been doing stuff in
East London people have been coming up and saying “That’s awesome,
what is this all about?” and the level of enthusiasm really impresses
me. I haven’t gotten one negative comment except for over near
Portobello Road when I was doing a boarded up shop and these girls came by
and they were like “flyer thugs” (at us) but they didn’t understand
that we were not flyer guys. A lot of people are excited to see stuff on
the street in the U.S. but it seems even more concentrated here. “One thing I’ve noticed, and I don’t know if it’s everyone here (U.K.) is that is more politicised. The impression is that all Americans support the war and that Americans are all idiot cowboys or something. It kinda hurts my feelings because I know tons of people that are against the war its just that they aren’t people who have the same kind of power as the corporations, Bush and Fox News. It’s depressing that the entire United States is being looked at as idiots but I also say to people it’s our own fault. If you don’t want it to be seen that way get active. I think people turning against Tony Blair for him being Bush’s bitch and for supporting the war – that’s encouraging about the UK to me. "Vivienne Westwood has asked
me to work on a poster about the law where they can hold someone for 56
days without charging them. A law like that can only get passed when a
climate of fear about terrorism has been created. Its when people are so
scared that they are willing to sacrifice their own rights – that’s a
bad thing to happen. It may be a little better here but there’s some of
the same problems that there are in the United States. The government in
the US and probably here too has learnt how to leverage fear to push their
agenda through. Things that might not in a more even keeled time might not
be able to happen. So I think a lot of the work I’m creating is as
relevant in the UK as it is in the US. Whatever happens in the US is
relevant to the rest of the world because what the US does affects the
rest of the world – in that sense it’s always going to be relevant”.
The UK is
supposed to be the most CCTV’d country in the world – do you see
similar levels in the US? “Not
even close” Shepard replies, “You go to New York or L.A. and
you will a security camera outside the bank or maybe inside a convenience
store but that’s it. It’s not on every single building, three angles!
For me, I’m always going to do my thing and hope there aren’t enough
people watching all the footage to ever catch me or by the time anyone
watched it I'm back in the US. We found out when we rented a van that if you
drive at all during the day there’s this congestion charge and your
license plate will be photographed – there’s no way to get out of it.
That feels very ‘Big Brother is watching you’, ha ha! I don’t
necessarily think its totally negative for the whole of society that
there’s surveillance but it does allow them to have really solid
control. Being able to drive around London if you’re poor is something
that people should be able to do. Not only do you feel like you are under
surveillance but it’s a little bit prejudicial to those who can’t
afford it - delivery guys
whose businesses are struggling and it adds another 20 dollars a day –
that’s a deterrent and in an economy you want the playing field to be
level as possible.
Big Brother Is Watching You - Shepard Fairey Any close scrapes in your time here? “Yeah. I got stopped by the cops over in Soho putting an image up on a boarded up building. One end of the street was blocked so I didn’t think anyone was going to drive down there. Next thing I know the light is on me and the cops got out and said “do you have permission to put that on there”? I said “no, its for a band and I thought it would be alright” and they said "take it down, pack it up or we’ll ‘nick yer’", ha ha! They didn’t look at the image – if they’d looked and saw a woman holding her ears with the slogan ‘Obey with caution, blind acceptance can be hazardous’ they might have thought it was political – lets take this guy in. I peeled off the image and was able to save it, put it back in the van and they let me go. I’ve never been caught here where I was climbing up something that was obviously trespassing – I’ve been lucky with the police here!” All the more amazing considering how prolific he’s been “I brought about 50 pieces to the UK and we’re hoping to get them all up in the couple of weeks we’re here”.
Obey With Caution - Shepard Fairey There are certain parts of town that you often hit up when you are over here – how do you choose where to go? “I’ve got friends over here, like a guy who used to work for a flyer/magazine distribution company and he knows London. We went out the other night and we hit stuff up in Portobello, under the Westway, in skate parks – he knows the spots that will be good. I like to put stuff up all over London. I don’t want to put stuff up just where I know the people who might like my work already are going to go but because we are staying in this area (Shoreditch) we notice spots in this area first. Then people who saw us putting stuff up come up and say “let me call my friend – they will want you to do something on their pub” so we get legal walls too. My goal is by the time I leave is to have hit every neighbourhood. The way I like to do it is to find places that are abandoned or where there is already graffiti so I can bring a ladder and go higher – I don’t want o piss off a building owner but you know how it is – you find spots that you hope will stay up and go for it. Some of them get cleaned or are gone over by other people and some of them stay up – it’s a crapshoot”. Article Continues> ( pages 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 )
|
STREET
ART GRAFFITI INDEX
Stencil graffiti Spray can graffiti Stickers
1 2 Graffiti books
1 Featured artists |
|||||
|
|
|||||||
