Looking back at OBEY

I just want to revisit the research on Shepard Fairey. I have already briefly looked at his work and made some comment but after starting to put my presentation on subversion/creativity together I have been looking a little more the OBEY empire. 

"Obey started out as a propaganda-style street-art campaign, and has developed into a clothing company, graphic-design agency, magazine publisher and all-round alternative empire." Lewisohn (2008, p.101). 

 "Shepard Fairey in front of his posters, Photo: Ann Summa for Modern Painters"

I found an article called Street Cred which talks about Fairey's work. Bearman (2008, p.73) writes that "In New York, Fairey's work, along with that of other street artists, has been systematically defaced by the Splasher, a mysterious detractor (or group of detractors) armed with a xeroxed manifesto and buckets of paint. Fairey accepts the Splasher as inevitable—street artists compete by covering one another's work—but he's clearly wounded by the wider chorus of complaints that his art has become toothless. "It hurts my feelings." he says, "that people don't recognize that I'm doing my noncommercial work with the best intentions, in an ethical way, and still making my artistic point." 
This raises a deeper question: whether that's possible. When rebellion is sold on a well-fitted T-shirt, is it still rebellion?"

He goes on to say, "Marcuse wrote how capitalist consumption erases critical thought by immediately incorporating it into the mainstream. Thirty years later, Frank outlined the precise history of how advertisers neutralized the counterculture by transforming it into marketing tropes and selling it back to itself. If this tragic trajectory turns all mass-produced protest art into the Che Giuevara shirt, why should Fairey be an exception?"

In this article, Bearman, like myself is constantly questioning this area of Obey. It's a hard question to answer, it's quite easy to call him a sell-out but it also seems like a natural process that Fairey's work, after grabbing people attentions, changed from what it was at the begging, much like punk. Fairey found Punk Rock and skateboarding at a young age and saw power in the t-shirts that came with those. Bearman (2008, p.73) writes, " I realize that his entire approach to "Obey" is conditioned by the experience of being that kid in Charleston for whom punk and skateboarding provided a telescopic view into a larger world. "The medium is the message," says the artist, citing Marshall McLuhan to suggest that illegally posting stickers is by definition oppositional expression. Stickers and T-shirts gave Fairey a way out before, and so they can today, too." However Bearman does go on to say that "Fairey is a victim of his own success. The more popular "Obey" becomes, the more it becomes a brand, fading into the visual background noise of the marketing it was meant to undermine."

a fine line.

Is now commercial aspect of Obey, subversive towards Fairey's own ethics, at least the ones in the beginning? Or does it subvert those who associate themselves with street art. I could go on but generally, it looks like we can compare the progression here to the progression and change that happened to the punk subculture. Let's take a look at the Obey merch that is on offer. Urban Outfitters stocks the Obey brand and the webpage opens with this:

There is an abundance of clothing and accessories. I remember seeing Obey t-shirts a while back then when they started appearing in shops but this was more than I was expecting. More items than I was expecting, more variation, colours I didn't expect as well as designs. 

OBEY Propaganda Pin Gold T-Shirt £28

There a conscious 'edgyness' that eludes to early punk though use of imagery here and to an extent the vibrant yellow of the shirt itself.  

OBEY Bridgewater Black Long-Sleeve Polo Shirt £55

This one is so far from that I imagined the brand to be but after seeing what commerce and consumption has done to punk, it doesn't come as a surprise. It's a polo shirt. With OBEY embroidered on the front. What else can I say other than point out how far removed this is from the eye catching image of Andre The Giant. 

The choice of model is also interesting, stereotypically edgy. This demonstrates the audience that these items are aimed at. Find more sweet Obey items here including hats, belts, pins, tote bags and more! Visit the official Obey Clothing site here.    

What could be said is that if Fairey consciously knew he was playing to chums, this could be seen as subversive. The intention behind this matters. However, as stated above by Bearman (2008), I think that Fairey has been a victim of his own success and has sold out.  

Obey Star Ornament

Bibliography

Book

Lewisohn, C. (2008). Street Art, The Graffiti Revolution. London: Tate Publishing.

Article

Bearman, J. (2008). Street Cred. Modern Painters, 20 (9), 68-73.