consumer propaganda (or, the world has no longer has meaning)
as a follow-up to my last post on shepard fairey…..if other people don’t see this as selling out, i think my sense of irony is totally miscalibrated, and if that’s the case, i should just give up trying to discern anything meaningful about art or politics or culture and let the whole world roll over me like water off a duck’s back.
Consumers of the World Unite
By ERIC WILSON, New York Times
January 7, 2009SHOPPING, these days, is a political act. If you are brave enough to buy a $2,000 Prada handbag, you might rationalize that you are helping to stimulate the economy. Solidarity, people!
Saks Fifth Avenue, which has surely felt the recession’s sting, is taking just such a fist-raising stand with its spring marketing. The campaign is inspired by the bold graphic designs and propaganda spirit of Constructivist art — although it is intended to be tongue-in-cheek.
The store hired Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the stylized Hope poster of Barack Obama that became one of the most highly visible, though unofficial, images of the presidential campaign, to design its catalog covers and shopping bags. They bear a rather unsubtle allusion to advertisements made in the 1920s for state-run department stores in the Soviet Union.
“What we do every day, really, is propaganda,” said Terron E. Schaefer, the senior vice president for marketing at Saks.
So why not go whole hog?
The Saks slogan, “Want It!” is printed in lettering similar to the graphic designs of Rodchenko, the Russian graphic designer who was one of the founders of Constructivism. The images, largely realized by Cleon Peterson of Studio Number One, Mr. Fairey’s design company in Los Angeles, depict the season’s trends in black-and-white images with geometric slashes of red, some of them shown on models posing as if they are champions of workers’ rights. An ad for a slouchy bag, for example, tells shoppers to “Arm Yourself,” while a style of relaxed, cropped shorts are described as “Brave Pants.”
Asked if his work could be misunderstood as some sinister form of retail indoctrination, Mr. Fairey noted that he was also looking at agitprop posters made for the Works Progress Administration in the 1940s, to lift morale.
“Some people might think it could be making fun of what’s going on right now,” Mr. Fairey said. “But I think most people are sophisticated enough to realize it’s a way of grabbing attention. It’s commerce. I don’t think there is really any political statement embedded in this.”
Given the pricey goods Saks is selling, it’s not likely anyone would accuse the store of being socialist.
i note that this collaboration doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere on the obey giant website.
thx to khh@SFlovestory for the heads up.
Filed in art, culture and random linkage | Tagged with propaganda, selling out, shepard fairey | Comments (5)5 Responses to “consumer propaganda (or, the world has no longer has meaning)”
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He is a commercial artist and graphic designer.
You could put together a nice career as shep fairey’s critical foil.
now, yes, obviously.
i assigned some meaning to something that perhaps wasn’t true. maybe shephard fairey was never trying to do anything except sell his art to the highest bidder, regardless of who. maybe he never wanted to actually be part of a new revolution; he just liked the aesthetic of one.
still, seeing this pains me in ways that are much larger than whatever shepard fairey is doing or why.
for the record: i’m not a hater on artists who get popular/make tons of cash. my definition of “selling out” has nothing to do with how much money you make off what you are doing or whether or not you hold down a “real job” in order to fund your art. it has to do with who you contract/work with in order to get that money. i if you can manage to make a good living of off your art without selling it to coca cola, clear channel, or saks fifth avenue, that’s the best thing one could hope for. as a matter of fact, i wish the whole world worked that way.
so you have to work for a company on your list to be a sell out. does nike go on that list? there goes everyone