Final Project

JUA Powerful Images Final Project

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Meeting with Geoff Hargadon

At the end of our last day in Boston "Powerful Images" met with Geoff Hargadon, a veteran financial advisor and street art collector. We were all exhausted from a long day in Boston looking for hidden street art. We were all somewhat upset and disappointed with our lack of success in finding Shepard Fairey's art work. However, our moods were quickly turned around after meeting with Geoff. He talked with us about some of the art work on the 81 foot long wall. He explained the history of explained different artists and the way street art works. We even found out that he himself, was a street artist and had work on the wall! He told us the meaning of his work and then handed us out special stickers he made. Then Geoff had a little surprise for us. He took us up to the roof of the building to show us other examples of beautiful street art! We all think that this meeting was the cherry on the top of our adventure in Boston.

When we looked for street are we found....

A lot in Cambridge. Our first sighting of Shepard Fairey's work was 6 posters of the Obama Hope picture. After looking at that we walked more on Mass Ave. and saw this alleyway and on the this wall was more artwork by street artists all around. The wall where we saw all this art work is actually the exterior wall of the Central Kitchen restaurant. We left Cambridge to go find more of Shepard Fairey's work and we couldn't find much. We did see some of his work across the street from south station on an abandoned building. There were multiples of his Giant Obey work. We tried to find more of his work but the only large one we found was his giant mural on city hall, which was a lot different from what we expected. It seemed like a curtain hanging down. We were a little bummed but yet we were happy to find his art. We learned that there is more art in the smaller places than the larger places and all had specific meanings. Such as the artist's work with the monopoly guy making fun of monopolies and how they take money from the people. All the works were fun to look at and fun to find.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

On Tuesday we went to see Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Supply and Demand”. The artist is famous for the Obama campaign posters. These have Barack Obama’s face in blues and grays with “HOPE” and/or “PROGRESS” at the bottom. The work on the wall is usually found on the street on sides of buildings and sky scrapers. The pieces included political messages, other pop artists, and musicians for peace. There were a lot of people in the ICA when we were there.

We surveyed a few of them who were observing the art. One man who worked there said he has known Shepard for a long tome and seen his art around Boston. He didn’t like how his art was in a museum and thought it looked better in the street. Our reaction was similar because we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum of the artwork that was free all over the city, and the world.

The “Andre the Giant” work was one of his firsts. We learned that when he was in college, he created it as a little joke and posted it up all over Providence. It quickly spread and became one of his most seen pieces. A lot of us realized that we had actually seen some of his work, without knowing about it. Three of us own clothing with his symbols.

Everyone’s reaction was “I want to do that!” or “How do you do that?”
It truly inspired all of us.

Free Time

In our little free time, we cruised around Cambridge. During a learning block we had been in a large mall looking at advertisements. These stores were a little pricey so we quickly headed to Goodwill. What a good find!! Monday night, we searched a Thai food restaurant. It was delicious! It was quite spicy, and we went back to the hotel full and happy.

March 9: Pretense of a Summary

Don't worry! There will be more later.

Yesterday Boston was a dismal rainy/snowy/sleety place. But did that stop the Powerful Images group? NO! We rode the subway, visited Copley Place, the Library, and the Goodwill.

We explored the advertisements at Copley Place and asked inquired of ourselves what the images meant. Are they real? What are they portraying/selling? What audience are the ads targeted at?

There were differing views, but most said that in some way the images were unrealistic. More on that later.

Just some of Jamie's pics of the wall near Central kitchen. We will be visiting again today as well as looking for more street art.

Fairey's OBEY campaign

MANIFESTO by the artist

The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as "the process of letting things manifest themselves." Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.

The FIRST AIM OF PHENOMENOLOGY is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment. The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker. Because OBEY has no actual meaning, the various reactions and interpretations of those who view it reflect their personality and the nature of their sensibilities.

Many people who are familiar with the sticker find the image itself amusing, recognizing it as nonsensical, and are able to derive straightforward visual pleasure without burdening themselves with an explanation. The PARANOID OR CONSERVATIVE VIEWER however may be confused by the sticker's persistent presence and condemn it as an underground cult with subversive intentions. Many stickers have been peeled down by people who were annoyed by them, considering them an eye sore and an act of petty vandalism, which is ironic considering the number of commercial graphic images everyone in American society is assaulted with daily.

Another phenomenon the sticker has brought to light is the trendy and CONSPICUOUSLY CONSUMPTIVE nature of many members of society. For those who have been surrounded by the sticker, its familiarity and cultural resonance is comforting and owning a sticker provides a souvenir or keepsake, a memento. People have often demanded the sticker merely because they have seen it everywhere and possessing a sticker provides a sense of belonging. The Giant sticker seems mostly to be embraced by those who are (or at least want to seem to be) rebellious. Even though these people may not know the meaning of the sticker, they enjoy its slightly disruptive underground quality and wish to contribute to the furthering of its humorous and absurd presence which seems to somehow be antiestablishment/societal convention. Giant stickers are both embraced and rejected, the reason behind which, upon examination reflects the psyche of the viewer. Whether the reaction be positive or negative, the stickers existence is worthy as long as it causes people to consider the details and meanings of their surroundings. In the name of fun and observation.

Shepard Fairey, 1990

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Censorship

On Monday, we spent a little over an hour on the Internet. Our main objective was to basically look up some popular newspapers and see if their reports were biased or unbiased. We looked at the common newspapers like NY Times or BBC and we found out that their opinions were definitely different. For example, a FOX News story was conservative, while the NY Times was liberal, or a foreign country's newspaper such as BBC would be considered neutral.