{"id":999,"date":"2010-05-01T10:12:39","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T15:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2010\/05\/01\/shepard-fairey-mayday\/"},"modified":"2010-05-05T09:07:34","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T14:07:34","slug":"shepard-fairey-mayday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2010\/05\/01\/shepard-fairey-mayday\/","title":{"rendered":"~SHEPARD FAIREY-MAYDAY !!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shepard<\/p>\n

gonna be a big street part-tay on WOOSTER ST – today – it’s also the sunset show for DEITCH PROJECTS !!<\/p>\n

and, is that MAYDAY as in S.O.S. in distress – – for the world – I think so, at least for the GULF Of MEXICO !!
\n(as opposed to May Day – a celebration of Spring ? )<\/p>\n

p.s. it was reported in the local paper – The Villager\/April 28-May 4, 2010 issue – that “assaults” were being attempted on the ‘wall’ – FAIREY and his crew just put up on the DEITCH sponsored tag wall on the corner of Houston and the Bowery. “Last week, a mad tagger (!!) managed to throw up a partial scrawl on the new artwork, only to be grabbed by a beefy, albeit slow moving, security guard. The tagger evaded the guard’s clutches by wriggling out of his T-shirt, also leaving behind his cap and spray paint can. On Monday, another vandal (!!) dispensing with paint altogether, heaved a grapefruit-sized rock through the sheetrock-like panel that the piece is on, leaving a hole. He or she was apparently aiming for a bull’s eye on the artwork, but missed.” The Villager’s ‘SCOOPY’ then goes to say: “Word on the street is that because Fairey committed the sin of actually attending Rhode Island School of Design, some graffiti artists might not respect his work as ‘authentic’.” . . . yo. might have more to do with – how does someone who made his rep and big big pile of dough as a street ‘vandal’ himself – put up a stance that does not allow other street ‘vandals’ from climbing on that big bad bandwagon to sky-high success themselves – by hopping on board. literally.
\nWATCH OUT SHEPARD FAIREY !! invoking the spirit of that biggest tagger-in-the sky – JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT – king of the never sold-outs – might just backfire on ya !! plus the poster image above doesn’t even really look like Jean Michel, except for maybe the hair – what’s up with that, not using other people’s (media) photos – as the basis for your iconic images – anymore ? guess, that’s what happens when ya get too big. you can can only burn so bright – before the flame turns around and bites you right back !!
\nno judgment here. just bringing the issues to the table as they play-out. a lot of people told me they don’t like that Bowery wall – cause its “played-out” – personally I don’t think so. I think its great.
\nesp the stencil work.
\nif you look closely at that poster above – you can detect some of that subtle stencil work – esp the triangle of concentric ‘curves’ – that’s a key ‘element’ in archival American quilting – a pattern widely used on colonial era quilt border patterns.<\/p>\n

ON SECOND THOUGHT: throwing a rock through tag work doesn’t sound like the M.O. of any street artist I know . . . sounds more like a radical politico – to me – like, maybe even a disgruntled early OBAMA supporter ? <\/p>\n

and, re that GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL – I don’t think – they have – a PLAN B !!!
\nits hard to believe – but could an off-shore oil rig – be as jerry-rigged as this little Indie art world website !!??
\ntalk about ruining the neighborhood – (on what EARTH DAY weekend ??!!) – gives new meaning to that good ole American expression:
\nthere goes the hood – when the black(s) move in !!!!<\/p>\n

as for SHEPARD FAIREY himself – a big supporter of OBAMA for CHANGE = HOPE – he is down on record in that same VILLAGER article – paraphrased as such: “Fairey has been underwhelmed with Obama, so far too, feeling he hasn’t delivered on promised change enough”.
\nin case you are just joining us, Fairey created that iconic “HOPE” poster – based on someone’s else’s photo, bye the way. the world isn’t just going down – its going down, fast & mighty complex ironic.<\/p>\n

SHEPARD FAIREY – ‘MAYDAY’ – OPENING TO-DAY – SAT MAY 1 \/ 6-9 PM
\nthe show runs MAY 1 – 29, 2010
\nDEITCH PROJECTS<\/a> – 18 WOOSTER ST – SOHO – NYC<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nSHEPARD FAIREY puts up his (legit-DEITCH SPONSORED) activist ‘street’ mural – “It’s about climate change” – Fairey. Houston and the Bowery, NYC. APRIL 22, 2010.<\/p>\n

\"fairey<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nthe stencils were cut from heavy gauge cardboard.<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nthe mural had an ‘activist’ – calling.<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\ncan you pick up the stencil work – its coloring was very subtle – totally 100% right on.<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nthis is an early and pivotal American quilt pattern – esp used on quilt borders – dating way back to colonial times.<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nstenciling itself is an early American folk art – used to decorate the walls of early colonial and pioneer homes by itinerant craftsmen. They applied the stencil designs with stubby brushes. modern times – it’s done with spray paint !! talk about the advances !! of 200 years of relentless technology, not to mention American ingenuity !! <\/p>\n

\"fairey<\/p>\n

\"Fairey<\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nthe ‘quilt’ pattern was also painted onto the wall – in several places, as well. <\/p>\n

\"fairey
\nusing traditional American pattern elements – is one of the keys as to how Fairey was able to use re-cycled 1950 Communist era Eastern European political poster art, esp its graphic composition and color schemes – to resonate with such an American feel . . . <\/p>\n

\"Fairey
\nthe mural ‘s formal title is just, a little cheezy, no ?
\n‘These parties disgust me’ – but hey, its hard to nail things down, esp when you wish some old school – B BOYS – as in Break Boys – were calling the shots. cut to the chase guys. let’s see what HOMELAND SECURITY & FEMA’s – made of now !!<\/p>\n

played-out ? sold-out ? commercial ? it’s still a mural with a message – that tries to deal with what’s going down, and I mean d-o-w-n with the world, and America, in particular today. as well as what’s good about, esp America: and that’s numero one – free speech. and is a testament to the huge art\/pop culture that is still alive and kicking in NYC – the cutting edge of the global art world – still. the chance that street artists, art schooled or not – who cares – can make it big, starting with Jean Michel (SAMO) – is sweet no matter how ya cut it. and the sweet revival & ever-resonating rich heritage of American ‘folk’ art, really pop !! as in popular art – going back to days one is right on the mark !! culture and controversy are actually quite a dynamic duo – that gets the art discussion back into the common lowest denominator !! no doubt. as Deitch’s final flame-out – congrats, Jeffery D. we’ll miss ya. despite what I said on my frozen home page – there ya go, karma will come back and bite ya – every time. well he is brilliant – but a bit autistic, socially I guess. but looking back, I realize in a way that – that was a big part of the fun about Jeffrey. though he was kinda clueless in many ways – he put on some great shows. name my favs? BARRY McGEE, CLAIRE ROJAS, ARA PETERSON & JIM DRAIN. the COCOROSIE PERFORMANCE. DASH SNOW & DAN COLEN – NEST. BEN JONES – THE NEW DARK AGE. MICHEL GONDRY – BE KIND REWIND !! <\/p>\n

ALL PHOTOS – EXCEPT THE DEITCH PROJECTS POSTER IMAGE – COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n

POSTED BY NANCY SMITH – SAT MAY 1, 2010 – 1 PM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

gonna be a big street part-tay on WOOSTER ST – today – it’s also the sunset show for DEITCH PROJECTS !! and, is that MAYDAY as in S.O.S. in distress – – for the world – I think so, at least for the GULF Of MEXICO !! (as opposed to May Day – a celebration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}