Tucked below M Street at 31st Street is the Museum of Contemporary Art, a small gallery which is currently living up to its name with an exhibit featuring some of the most pop culture-oriented artists in America. The most notable among them is graffiti artist and self-proclaimed “urban renewal” specialist Shepard Fairey. Ron English, Dalek and Richard Colman round out the “Playerhaters” exhibit.
Fairey’s work began in the late 1980s with an extensive one-man campaign to cover major cities in spray-painted stencils depicting the late Andre the Giant, whom you probably know from exposure to wrestling or The Princess Bride, depending on the nature of your upbringing.
For no good reason, the Andre imagery gained notoriety, and soon Fairey was producing a plethora of Giant-related posters and stickers for mass consumption. Embarking on a four-block walk in any major American city center, one still cannot help but cross an “Obey Giant” caption with Andre’s accompanying furrowed brow.
Fairey’s work at the “Playerhaters” exhibit continues in this trend. It is limited to his current line of “Obey” posters, which have wallowed with little evolution in a Soviet propaganda-style aesthetic for some years. Thus, the exhibit itself is little cause for celebration?Fairey’s larger project is far more interesting.
Obeygiant.com yields some fascinating insights into Fairey. His goal all along seems to have been to force people to consider their surroundings. Assumedly, presenting passers-by with imagery absent of any obvious commercial intent would help spur people to apply a more critical eye to media in general, especially advertising.
Naturally, the Giant experiment in media’s power could only be successful if it functioned on a large scale. And, of course, the only way one can do that is by becoming hip, with all the accompanying legions of devotees?exactly the type of situation Fairey seemed interested in warning against. The concept was turned on its head, even as the project played out to its natural conclusion.
No one seems more aware of this irony than Fairey. According to a “manifesto” on obeygiant.com, Fairey already saw the punch line in 1990. “People have often demanded the sticker,” he wrote, “merely because they have seen it everywhere, and possessing a sticker provides a sense of belonging. The Giant sticker seems mostly to be embraced by those who are (or at least want to seem to be) rebellious.”
Yet Fairey gleefully continues to drive his posse to disseminate Andre?maybe because he wants to push his experiment in phenomenology to the bitter end, or maybe because he thinks it will help him sell more overpriced merchandise. Regardless, Fairey has no shame in his power over urban denizens?his website catalogues some more extreme demonstrations of loyalty, with extensive pictures of tattoos modeled after Giant posters. And the man is probably laughing all the way to the bank. Not that he wasn’t headed there anyhow?Fairey’s day-job, after all, has involved designing logos and ad campaigns for Mountain Dew and Levi’s.
It’s probably all for the best. Any hope the man might have had to save us all from our own consumerism would be rather na?ve. Popular culture’s pincers are, after all, inescapable.
However, one point of curiosity remains?why Andre the Giant? The New York Times quoted Fairey as providing the following explanation: “Well, he’s really ugly. Plus, he’s dead.”
You can find the MOCA at 1054 31st Street, NW.
