Plunderbund

So… this is a fine piece of propaganda art. As an art piece, I actually like it quite a bit - I might even buy one to frame and display in my home.. But I can’t be the only who notes the irony here, right? Clinton is clearly ripping off the Obama campaign’s use of Shepard Fairey artwork; the concept of political propaganda in the “Che Guevara style.” Heavy influence of old-school socialist art style.

Who is this Shepard Fairey? He is a skate punk — with a secretary. A CEO in Puma sneakers. The rebel who did Pepsi ads. If you live in a big city, including Washington, you have probably seen his handiwork. Since 1989, during his student days at the Rhode Island School of Design, Fairey has been slapping stickers and pasting posters depicting the face of the Andre the Giant, the deceased French actor and professional wrestler, on every available surface, legal and not. Fairey has spent two decades shimmying up lampposts and over chain-link fences in a tenacious public art enterprise, irony performed on a landscape scale. Thousands of his Andre stickers include the word “OBEY” in bold lettering. What are we dealing with here? Obey what? Obey whom? A giant from France? Aha. You have cracked the code. It is reverse psychology. ( Pssst! Don’t obey.)

Great stuff, but she’s late to the party. And the campaign, regrettably, chose an image that immediately brings the word “kamikaze” to mind. Not a wise choice.