Shepard Fairey Mural Review

Shepard Fairey is the most iconic figure in contemporary street art. Best known for his work on  Barack Obama’s 2008 “Hope” campaign poster and his Andre The Giant murals, Fairey has been making public art since 1984.

Fairey recently designed a mural near the Lake Shore Drive viaduct on Grand Avenue for the Navy Pier Walk exhibition.  The mural is a series of twelve posters that bear a resemblance to  album covers. The posters are printed on standard copy paper and were applied to the surface of the viaduct with standard wallpaper glue. 

Fairey has his roots in the 1970’s and early 80’s punk movement and draws upon 70‘s iconography in much his work. Given his roots in the early 1970’s and early 80’s punk movement, it isn’t surprising that Fairey would use images and iconography that recall one of the most reactionary periods in art and American history in his mural. Whether it depicts a military plane dropping records over a foreign continent, a snarling panther, or a burning phonograph, each record cover that makes up the mural reflects a different aspect of 70’s and 80’s culture and the impact that art, music, and free speech has on our lives. 

The poster farthest to the right details a skull wearing a viking helmet and dagger between its teeth is reminiscent of the dangerous imagery that  punk and heavy metal acts portrayed during the 70's and represents the rebellious spirit that bands like Mötorhead and The Ramones championed in their music.

 Further down to the left the words "power and equality" are emblazoned above the face of an African American woman, a reference to the Black Power movement of the 1970's and socially-conscious hip-hop movement of the 80’s. Fairey is a self-confessed Public Enemy fanatic and this part of the mural reflects the ideals he shares with Chuck D and the gang.

 The left-most poster has an advertisement-like look to it and ties together the entire mural. It features a megaphone plugged into an amplifier boasting that you will be able to "protect free speech over great distances" and urging the viewer to amplify their voice. 

 

Like his street art contemporary Banksy, Fairey’s work carries a strong political message. 

However, Banksy uses humor and subversive imagery to convey his political message, while Fairey’s work is much more subtle. The purpose is to make anyone who views his art question what they are looking at and in turn, the world that surrounds them. 

Fairey borrowed the iconography from these different art and social movements and incorporated them into his mural to remind people that in the face of insurmountable odds, it is still possible to make sure your voice is heard. Fairey seeks to remind people that by speaking out, they can make as much of an impact on the world as the punks of the 70s or the Black Panthers of the 60s. 

Fairey’s medium is as much a part of the message as the piece itself. The fact that this mural is hanging on an aqueduct on one of the busiest streets in Chicago, rather than hanging in a gallery somewhere adds a whole different dimension to the piece. Fairey’s work and the message it spreads reaches a much broader and diverse audience hanging on the side of the street, rather than preaching to the converted at an Obey gallery show. Fairey’s mural is a welcome and thought-provoking addition to Chicago’s cityscape.

 

The fact that this mural is hanging on an aqueduct on one of the busiest streets in Chicago, rather than hanging in a gallery somewhere adds a whole different dimension to the piece. Fairey’s work and the message it spreads reaches a much broader and diverse audience hanging on the side of the street, rather than preaching to the converted at an Obey gallery show. Fairey’s mural is a welcome and thought-provoking addition to Chicago’s cityscape.

Crain Communications Building Review

Besides holding the distinction of being one of the buildings destroyed in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, the Crain Communications Building, formerly the Smurfit-Stone Building, stands apart from the rest of Chicago’s skyline because of its slanted, rhombus-shaped face. The prominent, disjointed slit near the top of its facade earned it the nickname the “Vagina Building” and in fact, many locals view it as the feminine counter to Chicago’s other phallic skyscrapers.

At the time of its completion in 1983, the Crain Communications Building was one of the world’s first computerized office buildings. Designed by A. Epstein and Sons, the modern-looking building overlooks Millennium Park and can be seen from Chicago’s Museum Campus. From this vantage point, the building brings some much needed variation to Chicago’s boxy skyline. The Crain Building’s slanted facade stands out amongst the IBM Plaza and Heritage Building. The unique and modern architecture of the Crain Building’s disjointed, sloping face, adorned with lights makes its neighbors look archaic and unoriginal.

However, if one were to walk around the corner of 150 N. Michigan Avenue and examine the building’s other side, it becomes apparent why more buildings don’t take their design and structural cues from Chicago’s least phallic skyscraper.

The other side of the Crain Communications Building looks like it belongs to a completely different building. Its top looks angular and seems unfinished. It loses its flashy modernist appeal and instead, looks garish and ugly. The building’s bold design risks would pay off more if it looked as extravagant from every angle, rather than one specific vantage point. A few blocks away, the similarly structurally-unique Marina City residential complex looks interesting no matter what angle it is viewed at. It is for this reason that Marina City is more iconic than the Crain Building and is (probably) why Wilco chose to use Marina City on the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot instead of the Crain Building. 

The Crain Building’s “bad side” takes away from the appeal from the otherwise well-designed, distinguished facade. If the building looked as good as it does from the front at every angle, the Crain Communication Building would be one of the highlights of Chicago’s skyline, but its tacky backside leaves this diamond-shaped skyscraper as little more than a lump of coal.

PressPausePlay Documentary Review

The digital age has brought many changes to the world of art. Creation, consumption, distribution, and exposure have all been revolutionized by the advent of the digital age. Through a series of interviews with artists across the creative spectrum, as well as people who cover the arts and entertainment industry, PressPausePlay attempts examine these changes and whether or not they are beneficial to artists, consumers, and everyone in between.

The internet age and the tools it has provided have allowed artists to create, collaborate, and distribute their art in ways that would have been unimaginable ten years ago. Technological advances in film editing and recording equipment allow no cap on creativity. The documentary examines the neo-classical compositions of Ólafur Arnald and how he is able to write and arrange full-scale symphonies from the comfort of his in-home studio. The documentary compares this to recording techniques of only fifteen years ago, where producers and musicians would not be granted as much freedom and creativity that modern recording technology allows.

Distributing art has completely changed thanks to the advent of the digital age. Artists can completely forgo the traditional route of going to a publisher, signing to a label, or giving away distribution rights, in favor of distributing their art themselves over the internet. Sites like BandCamp allow unsigned musicians to distribute their music to a much bigger audience, comedians Aziz Ansari and Louis CK self-released their last stand-up specials, it has never been easier to put your art into the public space for consumption. 

However, is this democratizing of culture a good thing? Should everyone be able to sell their music, promote their short film, sell their photography online, regardless of how talented they are? 

It used to be that everyone was a critic, now everyone is an artist. The documentary discusses how the art world, especially music, is reaching a sort of point of saturation. The advent of the iPod allowed people to walk around with months worth of music in their pocket. 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu give consumers access to more films and TV shows than a person can watch in a lifetime. Anyone can write a novel and forgo the traditional publishing route by distributing it as an e-book.  Photography and illustration sites like and sites like DeviantArt and Flickr allow anyone to upload and share their illustration and photography and share it with the world.  

Some of the critics of the digital age interviewed in the film claim that allowing everyone to showcase their art steals attention away from art that is truly great and worth adulation. Author Andrew Keen claims that in today’s film business, a young Scorsese or Hitchcock could have never made it. If released today, their classic films would now get lost among the “ocean of garbage.”

Those critics claims are ridiculous. Even before the advent of the digital age, there were still scores of awful movies and music and great art was still recognized and adored by those willing to look for it. We live in an amazing time both as artists and consumers of art. The digital age has allowed anyone with an internet connection access to scores of art that would have never gotten exposure without the great equalizer of the internet. If anything, the internet has made it easier for artists to do well because it is easier to find their niche and develop a fan base. Artists now have access to a much larger pool of resources to expose themselves to, gain inspiration from, and collaborate with, resulting in more interesting, engaging, and exciting art.

Contrary to what critics like Andrew Keen claim, people will always make great art and there will always be people who will seek out and appreciate that art and will pay good money to support the people who create it. You just have to look harder.