After pleading guilty to vandalism charges in Boston over his guerrilla art tactics, artist Shepard Fairey had to deal with acts of vandalism closer to home. A few days ago workers sandblasted the brick exterior of his Echo Park studio, gallery and ad agency - called Studio Number One - and applied a shiny layer of anti-graffiti coating to the walls. Frequent tagging and graffiti had apparently taken a toll on the Sunset Boulevard building and Fairey, who rose to fame by employing the same hit-and-run tactics of graffiti artists and taggers."When graff seeped into the raw brick it was very difficult to clean," said Fairey, creator of the Obama "Hope" poster, in an email forwarded by one of his employees. "The building is historic and I love and want to protect the brick. The city was never any help with removal. Graffiti is par for the course."
The expensive layer of anti-graffiti coating won't prevent tagging. But it will make removing spray paint much easier and faster and perhaps make Fairey's big brick wall a less inviting canvas for taggers.
"Obviously I have experience with graff," said Fairey, "and there is not much point hitting a spot that will be cleaned immediately."
27 comments:
someone please help me: I realize it's probably context specific, but is the correct spelling P-O-S-E-R, or is it P-O-S-E-U-R?
"The flame that burns twice as bright burns have as long."
"...half as long."
Whoops.
A "poseur" is someone who pretends to be be what he is not. A "poser" is someone who poses, like a model would for art students.
And now I will go back to reading my dictionary. It has pretty pictures.
i think "hypocrite" is the more appropriate term here.
Since he is a graffiti artist, why doesn't he tag his own building. Or, if he cares so much about street art, why doesn't he allow his building to be a dope mural. Yea, it is a nice building. It'd be even nicer with him giving a pound to the community that he came from rather than the almighty dollar.
He's 39 now? And he's still putting stickers and posters up in public? Wow. The man has his work in The Smithsonian for crying out loud. I think he can retire from street bombing.
The guy has street cred to spare.
This place just got a huge bullseye on it.
WOW i love shepard fairey and can't believe all you haters! yes he practices in street art and graffiti but he never tags residential buildings or currently occupied buildings with his art... why is everyone hating on shepard so much?? is everyone that cynical? label me a shocked eastsider on shepard's side! ps shepard can come tag my house anytime.
@clubbles
Dagnabbit, this man's been telling you goldurn kids to OBEY for nigh unto twenty years now. Clearly, some of you haven't been listening!
Nice post. It's too bad the eastsider's criticisms will be taken far too seriously by those who admire Shepard Fairey's supposed artistic integrity.
This doesn't make him a hypocrite. He's not telling anyone not to do graffiti; he's just maintaining his own property.
I think someone said that art is "in the eye" of the beholder, littering walls with spray paint is hardly art, in this beholders eye. I hope they trash it...Artist my butt!
fairey's "art" has always smacked of art school posturing and opportunism, even back in the 'andre the giant has a posse' days. street cred and artistic integrity, aybe for those who dont pay much attention...
I didnt know the tenderloin youth center i worked in, that got defaced several times by Fairey's graff, was abandoned or inoperable. I guess me and the poor SE asian kids who had to clean his crap were all a dream!
I hope he catches some cholitos tagging his wall and gets a gun pulled on him, so he can experience REAL street graff, not the BS richboy joke its become.
You're usually not supposed to sand blast brick. Really bad for it.
The "anti-graffiti" coating that is applied to brick, is an unsightly shiny coating that resembles a wall covered in a layer of mucus. So much for preserving the historic look of this brick building.
shameless eastsider. shameless.
im just waiting on your post about alva keeping water in his pool so kids cant skate in it.
get a life.
I would hang a community board and let people hit that...force accidental collabs etc..would be interesting in itself over time as it evolves..maybe could have a sign stating "no graffiti on the brick but feel free to hit this wall" ..thats what i would do..as for Shepard, he seems more like an advertising guy, not a graffiti guy. He steals images, applies a stylized vector technique, prints oversize xeroxes at kinkos and has street teams glue them on walls. thats cool, he does his thing..its just way hyped because theres no art education in the US so people are easily sold to OBEY..sorta like Coca Cola.
In his defence, it was an 5x10ft 18th st gang placa. I dont think there are many people in the city who would like this on thier property or think it was "cool". Especially so if it was made by wannabes.
The only thing worse to have on your property is an obey giant poster
@clubbles,
Here is a great reason to "hate" on Shepard: it is called private property. It really doesn't matter that he refrains from tagging residential buildings or "currently occupied" buildings. He is violating someone's private property. I know of very few buildings that are not owned by some person or entity. Sure, we could go around and around about "public property" (as if the "public" can own property as a collective) - but generally, some level of government is the curator of these properties. As such, they have the right to determine access and use.
I am happy to hear that Shepard can come tag your house. It is your right (assuming you actually own the property and do not just reside there), however I assure you he would NOT be welcome to tag my property.
Hope this helps clear up why Shepard, and others of his ilk, should be "hated" upon.
Taggers, "artists", bombers....all the same.
Self centered vandals and destroyers of neighborhoods, all in the name of art.
What's your home address Eastsider LA blogger? I want to tag your home. Oh yeah, you probably don't own a property!
He should make a print of the brick work & slap it over the top of any graff. He would be staying true to his style, it would be faster & cheaper than a clean up crew & deter Graff when people know it will be gone in less than 5 mins. They will waste valuable paint
Shepard Fairey is not an artist. He's a stylist.
He's a street stylist.
I hear that all of the nonprofit stuff is misinformation, and the surprise is that Johnny Depp is opening a restaurant in there.
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