ukadapta.com | Shepard Fairey (Obey) interview

Shepard Fairey (Obey)
	Interview with Shepard Fairey (Obey) -Can you tell us a little bit about your show in London and what concepts you are trying to achieve with it? S: The show is called "NineEightyFouria", a mixture of the book 1984 (George Orwell) and Euphoria and it seems that nowadays, people are lovingly embracing their civil liberties, shrinking their privacy, shrinking all the oppression and homogeny that was represented in the 1984 book. It doesn't seem to bother anyone which is deeply concerning to me. For the past three or four years, I have been concentrating on a body of work which had a lot to do with the concept of that book as well as the war in Iraq, which I am very much against. Mindless consumers, corporations behaving indiscriminately and the fact that the book was set in London and considering all the surveillance cameras here, it seemed relevant and they have all played their part in shaping this body of work.

	I haven't done a big solo show in London since 1999 so I wanted to really push myself and try to do something large to show off my best work. - So who or which Gallery brought you over here to London to use this exhibition space? S: The show was organised by the Stolen Space Gallery which is run by DFace, a fellow streetartist. He had seen my work on the streets and we met at my opening show in 1999 and have remained friends ever since. We have wanted to a show together for years but couldn't find time in our schedules until now. DFace understands me and knows where I am coming from so is definitely a good person to work with.

	- How would you say your art has progressed over the years? S: For the gallery work, I would always keep some of the posters I would make for the street and print them on slightly nicer paper and sell them in order to make it all work more efficiently as there was not much demand for my art. Over the years, there has been an increase in the demand of my work so I have been making more sophisticated pieces with mixed media, like hand painting, richer layers, collages, stencils and using different mediums of canvas. I used to make screenprints in runs of 300-350 and now I try to runs of one of a kind to just five prints and I am also making some of my work much much bigger too.

	- What are the differences between British and American styles of graffiti? Are there any? S: In the USA, there are still alot of people who are clinging to the idea of graffiti being exclusively a spraycan art and being a Wildstyle type of lettering that perfected in the 1980's. To me that's a very narrow minded way of looking at Streetart or Graffiti. Whereas, in Britain, it seems that people are more receptive to the idea of using stencils or posters or even pushing the aesthetic of areosol paint where its not just about doing bubbly letters all the time. That's exciting to me because when you have a genre of art that is about pushing forward the boundaries and application of the mediums, you have to do that. Banksy deserves alot of credit for showing people that streetart can be for anyone and not just someone who understands the graffiti aesthetic. He has definitely inspired many British streetartists and that's a good thing. Even back in 99 when I first came here, I noticed that British streetartists place more importance in the concept and an aesthetic that made that concept work.

	When you look at English magazines or see the sense of humour and wit that is on television shows here, you see that it reflects an overall cultural difference. Where I might appreciate the wit and intellectual humor here, I think it goes over the head of many Americans. People here have been really accomodating to my work and I am really happy about that. In the US, I have cultivated quite a following but when I come here and people on the street see me, they know my name, what I do and seem really enthuisiatic about graffiti/streetart culture.

	- What is your definition if "Progressive"? S: Anything that I think is blazing a new trail is progressive. I think that you can still use styles from the past, but in a new way because context is everything. It's hard to say what aesthetically would be progressive because when you look at the idea of the content and the idea of the concept and its style and the marriage of all these parts, as long as it has been remixed in a fresh way, it can still be called progressive. You shouldn't repeat what's going on around you simultaneously, just have you own voice, that's more progressive.

	- Opinion about Dface? S: DFace's is doing a great job at creating work that is very distinctive with his iconography and also he creating work that doesn't feel redundant. Obey : http://obeygiant.com DFace : http://dface.co.uk Stolen Spance : http://stolenspace.com Written by Selph
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Shepard Fairey (Obey)

Interview with Shepard Fairey (Obey)

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