Art and Appropriation and Shepard Fairey ~ Los Angeles
A black-and-white border rocking an enigmatic cult icon under, above, or alongside bold lettering. If Shepard Fairey didn’t kickstart the contemporary poster renaissance, he certainly established a few molds that have been followed, appropriated, mocked, and straight-up stolen while the artist himself has moved on to worldwide fame, an endless string of promotional deals, outlets in all media, and no doubt a lot of scratch. It didn’t take long before everyone’s mom seemed to have their own posse, among other fringe characters, fame seekers, and subversive jokers with a penchant for fucking up city property.
(Image by Aiko)
Fairey has seemingly always been straight-forward about appropriating imagery, telling TACO that every time he does, it’s both on purpose and meant to be recognizable as such. We certainly know his army of Andre the Giants, Misfits skulls, Subcomandantes, Malcoms, and Assatas were self-aware tributes that recontextualized and subverted known imagery rather then creating wholly new icons. Like many fans of creative vandalism, we admire Shepard and have been stoked on his success and what it means for the hundreds of other artists who are coming up.
Staring at the online invitation TACO received for Fairey’s show opening this past Friday at New York’s Jonathan Levine Gallery, I couldn’t believe the image looking right back at me, though I must have seen at it the Charity By Numbers Show…a small girl holding a grenade very much in the style of Aiko, with a flower sprouting from its top. New Yorkers might not have caught this, but anyone with a middling interest in Los Angeles street art would recognize the grenade/flower juxtaposition from the work of our friend 2-Cents, whose black-and-white grenades with flowers sprouting from their tops have covered boxes, billboards, and marquees from the sea to Downtown, and are even sold by MOCA stores around Los Angeles.
What happens when an artist much more famous than you is inspired by the same idea, and all your hard work gets attributed to someone else? Contacting 2-Cents in the same week we’d discussed the unlicensed use of his grenade vase poster on Colin Hay’s recent album, 2-Cents said about the internationally-circulated Fairey image, “I don’t know what to do about it. I may have overreacted a bit with some of my posts I did concerning the matter. But on the other hand, I feel that people needed to know what was happening. It kinda got to the point where I had to say something. People that follow my work know that my main iconic image is the grenade vase. That is what I’ve been bombing around L.A. for the last two years. I sell my grenade vase print alongside Shepard’s work at Los Angeles MOCA Stores. In Santa Monica, my print is literally hanging on the wall right next to his Andre print in the MOCA Store. It just kinda sucks for me ‘cuz it takes some wind out of my sails.”
From top: Banksy, the original photograph, Bast. More on this particular image here.
A lot of things flashed through my mind as I considered 2-Cents’ words. In a genre where we borrow and are inspired liberally by one another, how damaging can it be to a young artist’s career when their work is recycled, knowingly or not, by someone with worldwide fame? Though there be nothing new under the sun, something about 2-Cents work is arresting and fresh to those who come across it– will the effect be dulled once Fairey’s huge show gains momentum?
Which leads us to the big man himself…
Shep’s big profile in the recent weekend events section of the Los Angeles Times had been followed by a letter of complaint by a man whose published photo of Chinese soldiers found their way onto an appropriated image on Fairey’s wheatpasted walls at Echo Park’s Brooklyn Projects. For his part, Fairey says that the image he used was a well known picture from a newspaper and that he consciously used it because it is an iconic image, something he’s done consistently since he was a student at RISD.
When asked about Aiko, 2-Cents, and the grenade, Fairey expressed frustration, saying he has seen the image around town, but in no way meant to copy or appropriate it. Walking TACO through the creative process, he said he was one of the last people to get a paint-by-numbers canvas, and when he did, he chose the little girl, as it was clearly something that could be subverted in a fun way.
Originally thinking of the famous television ad with the little girl, the flower, and the mushroom cloud, he decided to go with a grenade to add something subversive that would fit into the frame and have an impact. “I’ve been sticking flowers in gun and weapons and putting it up on the street since 1996,” Fairey says, “and that idea is part of the culture’s common language ever since hippies stuck flowers’ in soldiers’ guns during Vietnam War protests.” Shep went on to say that when he first saw 2-Cents and Project Rabbit’s stuff up on the street, among others, he never thought “oh, biters” because of some similarities to his stuff, instead he found it cool.
Asked for his thoughts on Shepard, 2-Cents considerately replied, “I don’t want to attack Shep. He has definitely inspired almost everybody that does street art. I was just upset that when he releases the print with the grenade, he automatically has a worldwide audience that will assume that I’m the one biting his style. I’m always going to be putting the image up as it has a deep personal meaning to me. This is also a sign that it is time to move on and start putting up my new designs.”
Fairey can appreciate that, saying “my job as an artist is to keep coming up with fresh stuff. Those artists with talent and a unique voice will succeed, all of our work evolves over time…”
We naturally wish Shep success with his show and continued inspiration and respect for 2-Cents to keep stunning our city with his work. Certainly, there are no easy answers in these situations but to keep on grinding, hitting the city with shit, and keeping ideas as original as possible and giving credit where it is due.
Picasso was known to say ‘good artists copy, great artists steal,” (a quote seemingly stolen from TS Eliot.) Eliot added to his quote, “Bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling that is unique, utterly different than that from which its torn.” Ha, but I just stole that whole set-up from another article anyway. Suckers!
www.2centsart.com
http://www.obeygiant.com/
- Perry Farrell & Shepard Fairey ~ Los Angeles Iconoclasts
- AP vs. Shepard Fairey ~ “Fair” Use
- Shepard Fairey Arrested ~ Boston
- Shepard Fairey ~ Downtown
- Shepard Fairey Busted ~ Denver
- Shepard Fairey Angry at Local Blogger ~ Echo Park
- Shepard Fairey/Blake E. Marquis ~ Revolution Girl ~ Hollywood
(1 tacos)
Río Kvisto wrote:
Big ups. Bringin’ the reporting and analysis to a whole new level. You make some good points.
Posted on 28-Jun-07 at 3:38 am | Permalink
fred wrote:
a lot of people have bitten shepard fairey’s style, sometimes self consciously, sometimes just copying… but at the same time i am not sure if he hasn’t done the same thing at times.
Posted on 28-Jun-07 at 9:32 am | Permalink
Euthanasia wrote:
I don’t see where the problem is here – The flower / weapon motif has been around for decade’s – look at the photo’s produced during the 60’s and 70’s at peace demonstrations, it’s not a new theme.
When 2cent dropped his poster’s, (Which i happen to like quite a bit) it was a fresh take on a important subject, and i think the grenade’s worked great for the street esp. in regards to producing a subversive message backed by our current political standing’s.
The reality of it is that all subject’s have been covered in one form or another in various mediums, and all originality seems to lie in appropriation.
If two artist’s find inspiration in a otherwise mundane object, then i see it more as a sign of success, helping push foreword’s a creative influx for all of us to look at and reflect upon.
In truth, when i look at Shepard’s piece, i focus more on the girl then the grenade, most likely because she appears as the prominent figure in the design, the grenade is tongue in cheek, almost an after thought.
So in the end, i don’t see where there could be any confusion here – the work’s really don’t look a like aside from theme, and i feel 2cents image is iconic enough where people who actually know what’s up should have no problem distinguishing between the two.
Good art can stand on it’s own, i don’t think there’s really much here to be worried about.
Posted on 29-Jun-07 at 11:34 am | Permalink
KAYGARFIELD wrote:
Great minds think alike, get over it and move on.
suckers.
Posted on 30-Jun-07 at 3:12 am | Permalink
Sisto wrote:
2cents is my boy, i feel what he’s saying… but I dont think people are going to trip on that image. shepard fairey produces so many designs that this one is not likely to be remembered forever, people aren’t going to say 2cents jacked anyone.
Posted on 30-Jun-07 at 10:33 am | Permalink
EUTHANASIA wrote:
If you REALLY want to see some one image jocking, check out that guy going by the name LAZER in west LA – Kid has been biting my shit for a cool minute.
Posted on 30-Jun-07 at 4:48 pm | Permalink
Project Rabbit wrote:
When I started to design some of my images, i noticed that shepards ideas were common in alot of street art worlwide. the black border with the sim ple image inside, and the block letters is a STANDARD in my eyes. Its like learning a scale on a guitar or learning to sing happy birthday. its obviously NOT ur idea but u make it yours. same with the “your name her” has a posse layout.
I feel where 2 centavo comes from but its an inevitable issue that will come and go forever. the only thing he should do is bomb harder and start wearing crazy outfits that make him look like a crazy person and doing tons of hard drugs and making more money and buying less cinematic noise scape albums and stop gettin all caught up in 32 hour warcraft sessions! then he’ll own buildings and hotels and junk and get a mustache and monacle and we’ll start calling him the drunk monopoly guy…
PS. i love this website!
word life!
-ProjectRabbit out
—–end transmission—–
Posted on 30-Jun-07 at 5:55 pm | Permalink
Oscar wrote:
I don’t see what all the fuss is about, since it’s not that original of an idea. Bragging rights on who stole this image first? I don’t get it, move on, it’s really not an image to base your career on.
Posted on 01-Jul-07 at 10:40 am | Permalink
Erich Redson wrote:
example of euth bitten
Posted on 16-Jul-07 at 1:38 pm | Permalink
Hadley wrote:
I don’t know if it’s correct to say Euth was bitten by this guy unless someone knows something specific. It’s weird because these two works seem more similar than the grenade pieces…but I feel they really stand on their own even more clearly…
I get a real sense of panic from Euth’s image, someone slipping into the insanity or succumbing to fear. The other one reminds me specifically of screaming out at all the bullshit inside and out. Plus it looks like the image from The Wall which is cool, I guess.
Euthanasia’s image is more disturbing and clearly more complex, whereas the other dude’s, I always just think, ‘yeah guy, that’s how I’m feeling too.’
I feel I’ve seen both artists’ work for awhile and both have expressed the way the bullshit makes me feel these days and have powerful images.
Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 1:23 am | Permalink
EUTHANASIA wrote:
To be honest, it’s fairly difficult to say that some one is or is not “biting” – again, I’m not the first person to use a horror based theme, nor am i the only person to ever render a woman screaming. I actually feel fairly indifferent towards “lazers” screaming faces, but have become more or less actively aware of them due mostly in part to other people asking me what i was doing with them (i.e. -Is that you or.. whats the deal?).
My opinion is that anytime you have anything show up on the street that seems remotely similar – and in this case there is an obvious aesthetic that was borrowed – then it may cause a feeling of resentment.
In my case, i have been fairly lax about the entire thing – i refrained from capping him (despite heavy encouragement from quite a few people) and decided that it was not my place – When i first started i had quite a few people remark that my work reminded them of Shepard Faireys giant icon – where would i be if he had taken that to heart and gone over all of my work?
Besides, I’m not at any level where i can take a stand and act like i hold some authoritative ground – I’m just one more person doing his/her thing. I might have more time in the game, but i cant discourage new player’s.
That’s whats so great about street art and graffiti in general, theres new people coming in by their own admission everyday, which brings new life to the subject. You have to start some where, he just chose something close and familiar to home.
Point is, i cant really be upset with him on a personal level. I don’t know the kid, and unless he suddenly starts spot jocking or really borrowing hard, I’m just going to let it ride.
I’m calling it a bite due to theme and style – which is understandable and easy to see. However, in the end it just means i need to keep moving forward and keep producing new material instead of letting one image be a staple, which really isn’t a bad thing.
All is good, all is well. It’s hot outside.
Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 10:34 am | Permalink
Río Kvisto wrote:
RE: “i refrained from capping him … and decided that it was not my place”
Exactly. You all are artists, right? Make the art, and let the art speak for itsel
On the other hand, if you do want to make some money off of it someday, then I guess you do need to be self-promotional and protect your intellectual property, build your brand, take market forces into consideration, etc. But, how would those motivations and actions effect both the artistic product and process?
It seems art and commerce are in dialectical tension. If you figure out how to synthesize/transcend this dialectical opposition, let me know.
Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 2:35 pm | Permalink
Hadley wrote:
I just saw a new shepard fairey piece in an ad in juxtapoz, the bottom of a treasury bill that says NO CENTS….could that be another coincidence?
Posted on 03-Jan-08 at 12:27 pm | Permalink
NO/FI wrote:
I met lazer once, he was really cool. I think that image is of his face in a copy machine…
Posted on 17-Feb-08 at 4:57 pm | Permalink
FAR602 wrote:
Very Interesting. LA TACO really gets my juices going again! Now, where did i put that Uni wide?
Posted on 14-Aug-09 at 2:30 pm | Permalink