Article by Marzia Picciano | Picture of Andrea Ripamonti
When Shepard Farey began to disseminate and spread the stickers with the stencilled face of Andre The Giant in Providence and then exploded everywhere in the early 90s, he certainly had half an idea of creating a mass effect or phenomenon by coagulating behind one of the Icon Face most recognized today throughout the world are the results of a sort of social experiment. Or rather, it was deliberately his interest. We don't know if he had imagined that it would be exhibited in a dedicated exhibition in Milan, at Steam Factory (with Deodato Art And Wuderkammern) which in turn would have dedicated the area of its Cathedral to this, incensed in the Lombard capital which aspires to be the center of everything that is the trend that will inspire the souls of Europe and beyond.
One could read some irony in these statements, which exists but should not come as a surprise or diminish the event, on the contrary: in its eagerness to be at the forefront, Milan prides itself on being the place where an important exhibition starts in Italy, for many reasons, anything but ironic. And which have been clear to us since yesterday, as soon as we entered the entrance to the structure, with the coat of arms of OBEY shot across the entire extension of the divider which will lead us, wall after wall, to understand an artist who in recent years has managed to unite art and politics in what is, to all intents and purposes, a manifesto of consumerism in reverse, focused on The use of advertising forms for a disinterested, very lively desire to call to arms against the end of times that our grandparents are designing for us.
Over time, Farey has gathered the aspiration of Warhol, Lichtestein and singing company of the years of the nascent consumer society (finding art in consumption, in short), the militantism of the aesthetics of certain Soviet propaganda (it is impossible not to feel Rodchenko under the brutal use of complementary chromaticisms) and the burning awareness of the end of the American dream at the end of the century so well expressed in punk and in the skate subcultures in which Farey began and found his, we would say, sentimental signature.
Hardly an artist who speaks using the characters to which pop culture (present yesterday, courageous despite the active tackling of all those present, with an even more ferociously pop jacket reading POLLINATOR) has accustomed us remains unheard, and in fact here we are, with the scene of alternative Milan (the artist TVBoy, Hell Raton And Fedez present, also because it is there BLOEM of the latter who accompanies the participants of the happening) and the institutional blessing (Councillor Sacchi very present) to celebrate the bitter smile of those who understand (I really hope) the retro-game of the diktat OBEY, CONSUME, REPEAT.
And precisely for this reason you need to see the OBEY exhibition. Let's divest ourselves of the sense of hype that drives us, and the catch-like-ism that we see behind such, yes, pop cultural initiatives. In short, let's remove the label of the system “Milan-of-the-weeks”.
The exhibition is one of the richest compared to the works on display, well structured with respect to what we want to achieve: that the spectator enters into OBEY-thought, from its beginnings and therefore arriving at today, arriving at the vision of the heroes (also can be stenciled, become a sticker, something that we stick to ourselves and stigmatize in an idea), to the call to ecologism (the waves of Hokusai I am trademark as much as that of Coca Cola behind which the shadows of the platforms emerge), to the relationship with music, which he has also iconized behind the call to arms of one of his fake labels. What remains is modularity, the obsessive repetition of formulas (advertising slogans like “Oil-based-policy”, the symbols of peace, the intense gazes of women, the flowers), a formula that is easy to assimilate, just as it was easy to appreciate the poster-art HOPEnot officially transformed into a campaign in support of Obama – one of the situations in which politics finds an ally in art today or perhaps vice versa, since it has contributed to making Farey even better known, to ask: “who jumped on whose bandwagon?” And in any case it makes perfect sense, because street art is militant, Shepard's goal is to “phenomenologize” art, and here lies his genius, while we smile in the face of mixed paper techniques that follow one another hysterically around us .
Seeing the OBEY exhibition is a bit like seeing how far we have come, and taking a position, because the moral input that emerges after wandering around this ecosystem of icons and holy cards is to take a position. Going beyond celebrating the message and embracing it is the most difficult challenge for us capitalists accustomed to the idea of a reassuring gray that rarely ever flows into absolute black. But to seriously consider street art, Farey's art, or rather the art behind OBEY you have to make this effort.
Click here to see the photos of the preview night of OBEY – The Art of Shepard Fairey in Milan (or browse the gallery below)
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
