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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Andre the Giant wants you to OBEY
Wednesday 18 June @ 13:03:03 |
 story and photos by Nick George
It was proven that Andre the Giant has a posse in Minneapolis by the packed OX-OP Gallery opening of Shepard Fairey’s “Prints and the Revolution” show. Fairey’s Andre the Giant sticker campaign started as a Xeroxed sticker back in 1989, but has since exploded onto everything from books to shoes. These products have generated a good deal of profit for Fairey. One poster from the show mimics a Federal Reserve stamp and reads “Obey Federal Reserve, Cash for Chaos.” Fairey is definitely getting paid for the chaos he is creating. According to his Manifesto, the “campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.”
While the artist has been shown in many museums and galleries, his most notorious work consists of posters wheat pasted to public spaces. Over the last decade Fairey has managed to enlarge the size of his street posters by printing them in panels and then applying them one by one to create the whole image. He often uses a ladder to apply his posters because he likes to get them as high as possible. “People (graffiti writers) are usually lazy. They’ll only put stuff up as high as they can reach,” Fairey said in 2000.
The current OX-OP Gallery show contains over 30 of Fairey’s posters that are printed on steel, wood, canvas and paper. The outside of the gallery has also been covered with a collage of posters that is similar to the work Fairey puts on the street.
The posters’ numerous subjects include hip-hop, revolution, cityscapes and punk rock. The paper screen prints are on sale for $40, but prints on other materials cost $500. Also for sale are two “Obey Giant” books and even Zippo lighters.
“My goal with the work in public spaces isn’t to vandalize unnecessarily. It’s just to get the imagery out there…. I do the backs of signs, electrical boxes. I do any abandoned property where I don’t think it’s going to lower property value. But I never do private property of like a business or anything that’s going to cause that person unnecessary grief,” Fairey said.
The day after making this statement at the Walker Art Center in 2000, Fairey was arrested in Minneapolis for wheat pasting a poster to an electrical box. This arrest didn’t stop Fairey from doing more of the same during his recent visit. “Obey Giant” posters, stencils and stickers have sprung up all over the Twin Cities but many of them have already been removed. Over the years he has been arrested for everything from criminal mischief and malicious destruction of public property to disorderly conduct.
In 1995, Fairey began to include the word “Obey” into his designs. Fairey’s original sticker says “Andre the Giant has a Posse,” but the sticker is no longer sold for fear of a lawsuit from the deceased wrestler’s estate. Today the original sticker design can only be obtained free of charge from Shepard Fairey himself.
The OX-OP Gallery is open from 4-8 P.M. Tues.-Fri. and Sat. 1-5 P.M. The gallery is located behind Grumpy’s Bar at 1111 Washington Avenue South. The show runs through June 30. For special viewing appointments or questions, call 612-259-0085.
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