Share
Preview October 4-17 2000
Giant Art By Ezra Dyer
For the past 10 years, Shepard Fairey, an art school grad, skater and punk rock aficionado, has been watching as his own kitschy iconic stickers and posters have taken on a life of their own. When he stopped in Boston and distributed his drawing of a dead professional wrestler with the random slogan “obey giant Has a Posse,” it was quickly integrated into the graffiti art, flyering and skater culture. Having sprung from the underground art scene, his iconic works have taken on giant proportions- his thousands of copycat stickers and posters have plastered many a public surface and become a staple form of graffiti art. Now, Giant Has a Posse, his Andre-the-Giant themed poster and sticker collection, has temporarily replaced record store Smash City’s usual wall decorations of album covers and flyers. Fairey has turned the idea into quite the biz – he sells Giant brand skateboards and clothes and now works in San Diego as a graphic designer. His many shows on the East Coast display his graffiti techniques mixed with graphic design concepts. If you don’t quite get it, that’s OK. Fairey explains it as a “experiment in phenomenology,” which means he’s provoking people so they will find meaning in nonsensical creations. “The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react,” he writes in his manifesto. “Andre is so ridiculous that there’s nothing left but the process.” Through Oct. 16 at Smash City, 304 Newbury St., Boston (536-0216). MBTA: Green Line to Hynes Convention Center. www.obeygiant.com
