Thursday 1 January 2009

Obey Obama



Maybe Santa thinks I should be a bit more politically aware, as he left me a copy of Time magazine (which I've never even seen before) in my stocking. Judging by its cover (its a magazine, so its ok to do), its a pretty good issue! The amazing artwork is by Shepard Fairey (what a Christmassy name!) of Obey. Its a reworking of the 'hope' mural you may have seen in various places. 

I remember seeing an Obey exhibition at the Truman Brewery on Brick lane in London last year and was blown away by the highly textured and patterned banknote-effect mixed with a heavy stencil and politically charged motifs. Perhaps more impressive is how global Obey is! There's been one of their giant giant faces on sides of buildings in practically every city I've ever been to! Theres a pretty interesting story behind that giant actually, but another time. Their reach is huge; I was very surprised, and very slightly saddened to find an Obey shop in the trendy Aoyama district of Tokyo. I think there's a book out too, so Banksy-style world domination is truly upon us. But if we have to be dominated by something, Obey is a pretty damn sexy dominator (wow I really like this word).

Check out some more amazing work by Shepard (and others I assume..) at their website.

p.s. Merry Christmas/Happy New year and all that. I had a very nice holiday, thankyou for asking.

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