Narcissistic Pop-Culture

This poster grabs most people's attention, especially teenagers during President Obama's campaign in 2008 (I was one of them). Instead of "HOPE" written at the bottom of the poster like most people see on the similar posters on streets or t-shirts, this one has "PROGRESS" at the bottom. It is not a recreation by someone's "simple-text generator", but instead, it is the original text/word that Shepard Fairey (the artist of this poster, also known as the producer of Obey Giant) was going to use on his endorsement poster for Obama. However, due to many misinterpretations from people's misunderstanding of his previous works, he changed the word choice in order to give full cooperation to Obama's campaign. Fairey is a popular pop-culture artist who had done many successful artworks in the recent decade such as the street poster (shows below).

Fairey's works have been very popular in the recent decade due to his commonly known narcissistic way of street art practice or self expression. The Obama campaign poster, like much of his previous works, is a pop-culture expression with bold, simplified lines and simple color theme. For example, the "Obey Giant" poster above,used the same style as the Obama camp poster, which quickly grabs teenagers' attention by its bold presentation. The idea behind his pop-cultural art is "to express an act of defiance and rebellious in nature and that politicizes it which it is this 'medium is the message' principal", said Fairey. On a flip side of the Obama camp poster from the rest of Fairey's works is that it isn't meant as a rebellious street art. Fairey states,"I'd like to get involved but I didn't want to do something and then have them say an illegal street poster campaign is bad, 'we don't want that association.'" In this aspect, it differs from the "Obey Giant," which had been quickly posted on the street walls, billboards, subways, bridge pathways of different cities in the United State when it first came out resembling rebellious street art.

Nowadays, the misunderstandings in society believe that a street artist (pop-culture) should be doing whatever things that are groundbreaking and politically rebellious because they present the streets and mass culture. Fairey argues that a lot of people are doing street art for fame, which is meaningless. And he has been accused to be one them (self-promoters).

In Obama's camp poster, I see a different expression of pop-art, a new approach. Here, Fairey does not express his own will in a rebellious purpose. Instead, the poster was made under everything that were needed to assist Obama's camp strategy. Fairey attempted not to associate any kind of illegal street poster, although he could of done so by making his own prints as on the "Obey Giant." I believe Fairey has created a new understanding for the society in appreciating pop-art.