Interview with Shepard Fairey, Creator of "Obey Giant"

Shepard Fairey is the founder of the "André the Giant has a Posse" urban art.

Since he started plastering stickers and stencils all over Charleston, South Carolina, 15 years ago, it has transformed into the legendary "Obey Giant" phenomenon seen all over the United States.

Dom Saldana of our pal Crave Online website interviewed Shepard about how he got started:

"Obey I think is a provocative word. There is a movie called "They Live", which star Rowdy Rowdy Roddy Piper and other wrestlers... The concept of the movie is similar to phenomenology in that people don't realize that they're controlled by aliens and they use authority and advertising to get the bewildered herd of blue collar workers to submit and obey.... That movie had a pretty big effect on me even though it was a silly movie just like the original "André the Giant has a Posse" sticker was silly but there's something that had led to [something] more significant. The use of the word obey is really too get people to question their obedience and ask if they really wanted to obey."

http://www.craveonline.com/articles/lifestyle/04649776/obey_shepard_fairey_exclusive.html


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OMG! These stickers are ALL OVER MY SCHOOL! It's really cool to find out what the heck they mean. You can't go into a room without seeing them. They are on the stairs, in lockers, under tables. It's crazy! I live in Oklahoma so it's cool that it spread all the way from South Carolina. Some may not call it art, but that's because it's not. It's a movement.
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country singer Bucky Covingtons guitar player and right hand man Ducky Medlock has a stack of "andre" stickers that came outta charleston. they came along with mr. Haynes, who carpetbagged from westvaco to willamette in 1990. tim bob got them from someone in charlesston back in the day.
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