Obama 'Hope' Poster

On the subject of political posters and the Guardian newspaper, there was a story run earlier this week about the above design by Shepard Fairey which has seemingly become a cult image across America during the presidential race. The piece by Laura Barton described how, despite not being officially endorsed by the Obama campaign, the guerilla poster has been embraced and utilised by the public all over the country.


Trying to find out a bit more, I found the interview below from the Henry Rollins Show last year in which Fairey discusses the idea of phenomenology which characterised his famous 'Obey/Andre The Giant has a Posse' street art campaign. His descriptions of the power and purpose of visual imagery in our public space is very interesting, notions the 'Obey' campaign sought to illuminate and it would appear his 'Hope' piece has also transcended, obviously with a far more conspicuous subject.



Following on from this interview, the illuminating arguments of this article on LA artist Mark Vallen's site named 'Art for Change' (there's the number one Obama buzzword) are stirring rebuke. The article highlights Fairey's history of plagiarism of a wide range of political artworks and icons, from the SS Skull moniker to Communist revolutionary and Civil Rights posters from around the world.

"You Decide"

'The Big I Am' microsite goes on-air

Check out Austin Maguire's guide to the fresh-faced talent on show at the 2008 Upstarts Exhibition.

Stick to vinyl

I bought this little guy back from Amsterdam as a present for my girlfriend.


I found him in Outland Records on Zeedijk, a record and vinyl character shop with a small gallery of sticker and street art downstairs in the basement. He comes from the set of Wookie/Crazy Label toys made for Chinese artist Bubi Au Yeung’s children's book “Treeson & Other Stories” (我愛樹仔)



Some of the work on display was from artists who have spoken in Dublin at Candy's SweetTalk shows over the last couple of years. Jon Burgerman had some pieces on show in the Outland gallery; his SweetTalk presentation a year or two ago was one stood out for me from all of those I've gone along to.

Some of the other artists on show:
Nagi Noda
Rolito
Superdeux
Tado