Life In A Bungalo

As I rounded the corner and made my way down Front Street in DUMBO, I spotted an enormous mob bunching up in all directions, taking up every inch of street space while off duty cops with ear pieces attempted to bring about some type of order and create something resembling a line. Georgie Bungalo told me there was no way I could miss the place. Jonathan Levine was hosting the opening for Shephard Fairey’s new work, and clearly this was something people wanted to see.

I first came into contact with Fairey’s work some time in the early 90’s like most people. I saw this strange sticker, warning and informing me that Andre the Giant,  has a posse. From random stickers on signs and skateboards, to full  warehouse packed with all of NYC’s hipster press folks—Shephard Fairey has come a long way. Then again, the more things change, the more they fold back on themselves. After cutting the line which wrapped around the block and down past the bridge, I grabbed a free Dewar’s and was quickly face to face with my old friend, Andre the Giant.

Entitled ‘E Pluribus Venom’, these new pieces are by far the most overtly political works Shephard Fairey has done to date. Coming from the world of street art, there has been an implied political agenda by posting work illegally around the world, these same beliefs are now echoed clearly in the paintings, collages and screens seen here in Brooklyn. Fairey’s style is often copied, but his work is distinct, and instantly recognizable, which in my eyes is the hallmark of an artist who is on top of his game.

The two most impressive pieces are the enormous collages that wouldn’t feel out of place on a billboard along the New Jersey Turnpike. They are large enough to make a statement at a distance, but viewing them up close reveals complicated layers of vaguely communist images in silhouette that seem to be promoting a message of universal peace. Another, features a much larger than life size image of a young girl holding a grenade, with bombers flying overhead faces an arrow pointing and reading ‘Forward’. Fairey seems to be both asking what direction the world is heading in, as well as suggesting his opinion as to where we should be heading. The large size of this piece identifies it for what it is: wonderful propaganda of the first magnitude.

Another huge piece opens with the face of a woman in silhouette that skirts the line between an SLA Patty Hearst and a Muslim woman in a burkha. The backgrounds, made up of repeating motifs of slightly skewed images from dollar bills, morphed to read ‘Indiscriminate Capiltalism’, appear here and in many of the works, smacking the viewer over the head, again and again to be sure they get the point. Repetive and heavy handed? A tiny bit, but Shephard Fairey is in the business of getting his point across, and as we all know from learning our times tables, repetition is an effective way to learn a set of facts.

Several poster sized silk screens, including a, what at this point I would call ‘classic’ Andre face, and another few ‘OBEY’ screens, almost seem like an after thought to the show, and don’t seem to be part of the new work. Maybe they’re were hung as his calling card, just in case there is someone who has managed to miss out on a decades worth of Obey images appearing everywhere?

On the wall opposite the DJ booth, where DJ Ten Fingers was busting out some Brooklyn classics like Black Moon, were half a dozen screens on brushed aluminum. While not as large and complicated as the mural-sized collage work, these pieces may be the strongest Obey work to appear in years. They are simple, definite and as iconic as Andre. A screen of Malcolm X, looking pensive and turned to one side in a profile with a small Obey badge resting in the corner. A head scarved woman staring back at the viewer with sexy, knowing eyes. A thorny rose growing out of a dog collar emblazoned ‘Rise Above’. A woman in a burkha holding a Kalishnokov with a flower jammed down the barrel. This is Shephard Fairey at the top of his game. These simple screens really put ideas in your head, and they are quite beautiful to look at to boot. I hope we’ll see these images popping up on streets everywhere, as they are masterworks from a modern propaganda master.

Throughout the evening, Shephard Fairey was handing out ‘Obey Bucks’, which have been appearing around New York City as well. They look and feel like actual currency, and have several slogans printed on both sides. ‘In Lesser God We Trust’ and ‘Obedience is the most valuable currency’ seem to be the themes of ‘E Pluribus Venom’, and they appear everywhere. The idea of printing propaganda currency to hand out is brilliant along the order of the original ‘Andre’ stickers, and I have my fingers crossed that these start to appear all over the place.

The show was completely packed, and as the evening wore on, it became more and more crowded, and more and more of a party. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the now famous ‘Incident’ that occurred towards the end of the night. Quite a bit of HTML has been spilled over this topic, and I’ll refrain from giving an opinionated diatribe.

Around 11 o’clock I noticed a commotion near the DJ booth, as DJ Ten Fingers lept of the barricade and confronted two kids with a backpack. Security guards, who happened to be everywhere, rushed over, and one kid was grabbed as another bolted for the door. The guards started ushering everyone outside on the sidewalk, while we all attempted to figure out what was going on. From talking to the security guards, I managed to find out that those two kids were trying to light some type of home made smoke or stink bomb, and the hero of the evening, DJ Ten Fingers, quickly lept to the rescue, and stomped out the fuse. Those are the facts. In the past few days, rumors have been flying everywhere from the NY Post, to Juxtapoz, to the comments section on The Gothamist. Many claim these kids are collectively ‘The Splasher’, out to sabotage the opening. Others claim they were the same folks who set off a stink bomb at the Faile show a few weeks back. Some time since the opening, a ‘Manifesto’, purported to be from ‘The Splasher’ has appeared. You can draw your own conclusion. I don’t deal in rumors and innuendo.

Shephard Fairey’s new work manages to break new ground, while remaining accessible. It is brilliant propaganda for a sick world, and it’s nice to see ‘The Good Guys’ being able to pull the levers and turn the knobs of the Almighty Mind Control Machine as well as those creeps who seem to run the world can.
Click for photos of the DUMBO show on Juxtapoz.com

Click for photos of the Chelsea show on Juxtapoz.com