If you live in Providence, Rhode Island, you probably know who Shepard Fairey is. And if you don’t know the name, you’ve at least seen the Andree The Giant stickers around the city. Shepard is a RISD Graduate, contemporary artist, graphic designer and illustrator who is known worldwide for his “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign. Currently he operates Obey Giant, a successful design firm with a recognizable style. He designed the new Led Zeppelin album cover for Mothership.
We would see Shepard around town and just knew him as that Andree The Giant guy. My memorable run-in happened at Geoffs, a local sandwich shop. Shepard came in, very agitated, telling us “The mayor is really pissed. I have to go take down the Andre face” off Cianci’s billboard. Sure enough, right down the hill, was the largest Andre face we had seen yet, completely covering Cianci’s face. I found this online:
Fairey tackled his first large-scale operation in 1991, during the mayoral election in Providence. As part of a school assignment (!), Shepard plastered a four foot Andre face on then-candidate Vincent “Buddy” Cianci’s billboard advertisement. To Shepard’s surprise, this created quite a stir in the local media, as people apparently thought some industrious rebel was commenting on Cianci’s Mafia connections. That’s when Shepard realized that people’s innate curiosity could catapult OTG into something much bigger than a facetious inside joke. If a simple 15 minute installation could receive attention from the media and at the same time force a few people to reevaluate their opinions, then why not push the project to it’s most absurd boundaries?
The posters here are Shepards awesome Obama prints.
Happy Presidents Day.
Visit www.obeygiant.com
Obama poster gallery at Obey Giant
Another Obama poster gallery at Obey Giant
i grew up in boston and had acquired some of those stickers back in the late 80’s. it’s so amazing to see where he is now. and all street art for that matter, it’s wonderful.
Comment by my love for you. — February 18, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
having the mayor pissed at you was not something to take lightly during the buddy years
Comment by Kristin — February 19, 2008 @ 7:51 am
I love the Andree The Giant lapel pin…
Comment by Jason Thompson — February 20, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
[…] by his supporters and believers. Rag and Bone has collated these images into two posts, here and here. You’ll find more poster links at the latter one too. Most of the images shared are made […]
Pingback by See: Obama Street Posters « ★ patience is a virtue…I don’t have ★ — March 5, 2008 @ 4:52 pm