Art is a powerful political tool that for speaking out against the social ills of society. Shepard Fairey was quickly noticed by mainstream art from the streets at galleries and exhibitions, majorly across Tokyo, New York, London, and Los Angeles. Perhaps the most criticized yet acclaimed modern-day artist, Fairey, has gained fame for his street smartness. He is a voice of the voiceless and openly speaks out against any form of government oppression and racial inequality. He made a name for himself by painting graffiti on abandoned buildings and walls, often asking questions through propaganda theme art. A native of South Carolina, his political art as a form of voicing his displeasure with authorities put him in a battle with the police. He has been arrested a dozen times, and in 2012, he received a 2-year probation sentence with a fine of $25 000 for criminal charges for his ‘Hope’ poster depicting President Barack Obama (Brune). In 2016, a judge in a Manhattan Federal Court dropped charges against him. He had been accused of knowingly defacing several buildings.
Fairey’s works are metaphorical masterpieces. They are potent tools for speaking against oppression and propagating anti-war sentiments. Art reviewer Young Caruso highly speaks about Fairey’s pieces, termed street ‘advertising phenomenology’. Fairey uses human vision and daily encounters such as the train subway, walls, billboards, and even bus stations (Caruso 1). He repeatedly captures the public’s attention in an austere environment, thus making his art even emotionally effective in communicating its messages. Through his street phenomenology, Fairey lets people find meaning in the things that are right in front of them, yet they have been obscured by abstract observation.
While many view Shepard Fairey’s style as reckless and careless vandalism on infrastructures, the emotions they evoke are so empowering. Most of the time, his artwork is seen as an eyesore and environmentally destructive but from an artist’s point of view, it is treasured as a gem. Fairey used his popularity to speak about war, human rights, and governance openly. His counter-culture image enabled him to receive wide acclaim for his Obama Hope poster he made in 2008. His vision went on to get iconic acknowledgment, creating a platform for Obama to campaign his way into an unprecedented victory as the first black president in the history of America (Caruso 3). The image was a solid statement of the strides the country had made from the era of civil rights. Against all odds, the poster spread like wildfire across the country. Some people, unhappy with him, used smear campaign to call him a notorious vandal (Cartwright, and Mandiberg 173).
The artworks highlight the troubled history and times that ordinary Americans go through. They are like personal tales in poetic and metaphorical fusions that have a special meaning and effect on the viewers. While the works are different in form and structure, the underlying message they carry is a reminder of the dangers and long-term effects of war. Fairey was very critical of America’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and its superpower imposition of other countries around the world (Caruso 4). Fairey, in an extraordinary way, forces the viewers of his artworks to question the world around them. He further sheds more light on the vision of a bloody and corrupt world and how political attitudes shape and manipulate people through wars. Markedly, his works have deeply entrenched personal feelings and flow of metaphorical prowess that reveal their thoughts on their day-to-day happens across society. Most importantly, his works show his love for art. He uses images to form relationships with contemporary culture, his loved ones, and the wild environment that carries hope, anxiety, fear, death, and suffering.
In conclusion, Fairey represents a set of literary talents that impose his genius into our lives with his wit, his images, and his passion for his surrounding environments. He uses art to change the lives of his audience by sharing his thoughts and ideas on their personal lives, politicians, bad governance, their troubles, their fears, and their hopes. Artists such as Fairey have traditionally changed how people live and behave from the times of great artists such as Diego Rivera. Fairey, having learned from Rivera, went on to create a unique style that challenges the status quo. Many of his works reflect life in Armenia with its long history of survival and pain of racial discrimination and politics. The underlying philosophical ideologies in his artwork give the viewers a glimpse of pain, survival, endurance, and hope. Effectively, Fairey, through his works, challenges the way government and the political elite corrupt society. The human imagination is essential in society for it gives people the virtue of compassion and attitude to challenge the wrongs in the community and country at large.