V for Victory: Duality of Humanity 2, Shepard Fairey (2008)

13 May 2011

Duality of Humanity 2, Shepard Fairey (2008)

Starting off as a teenage skater, Shepard Fairey is another famous street artist. His artistic career started off by decorating his skateboard and then plastering the city of Providence with his André the Giant has a Posse stickers; now his art is part of major museum collections. Fairey’s art supports his political beliefs; many of his works are anti-war, anti-oppression and anti-government. He is not afraid to announce his beliefs via art, but it has also led to his arrest many times. Most of his works are innovated from another source; he takes something that already exist and mutates it in a way that makes it his and changes the message.

This Duality of Humanity print is based on Al Rockoff’s photo of the Vietnam War, a photo of a Vietnamese boy, walking around in his armed weapons and a flower on his head (thegiant.org, Par 2). Rockoff’s photo journal was supposed to show what had happened during the Vietnamese War; Fairey took the photo and revived it in a way that the boy is not going off to fight the enemy, but instead to fight for peace. His backpack has a badge, the OBEY badge, with a peace sign. It is implied that this kid is going to fight, not for the greedy governments, but for his peace. Two strongest powers at the time, United States and the Soviet Union, were fighting to bring Vietnamn into their government. The soldiers who participated in this war were fighting to quench the thirst of the two nations, not for the good of their country. Fairey uses the image of a boy fighting for United States, but transforms it in a way where he is now fighting for his peace, for his country. In addition, Fairey responds to the combination of the original motif (of Vietnam War) and the Iraq War in 2008 in this work (thegiant.org, Par 1). This work combines Rockoff’s response to the Vietnam War with his response with the Iraq War, showing the direct connection between anti-war movements, forty years apart. His work responds to the greed of United States government in both wars. As a response to the Iraq War, Fairey questions the war and its purposes behind it all, by portraying a kid fighting for his peace. In his work, this boy is fighting for his peace; what was the boy fighting for back then? What are the kids in Iraq fighting for today?

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Welcome!

Have you ever thought about why we, as human, are always involved in a war? The reason seems unclear, though our government repeatedly proclaims that the war is for the people and their well being. As we look back, government’s claim seems questionable. Who is it supposed to benefit? Are we really going on a war for the benefit of the people, not for the thirst to gain more power? All the artists in this gallery question the core reasons of war and the overall result in the end. While Picasso, Bansky, Neshat and Fairey question and criticize the government for their shadiness, Miller’s “We Can Do It” poster shows our government’s intentions at the war. Is what you're fighting for the same as what the government's fighting for? If not, what does this tell us about the truth behind all the wars we've encountered?

Femininity in Propaganda

Ariana's Blog, Femininity in Propaganda questions the role of American women during the times of war. While this gallery questioned the purpose of war and the shadiness behind it, Ariana's blog questions the role of women during the American propaganda campaign. In V for Victory, it questions the usage of "We Can Do It" poster and the government's attempt by stirring up the feminist movement and Neshat's Rebellious Silence questions the difference between what the women are seeking to get out of the war versus what the male dominate government seeks. Femininity in Propaganda goes even further, comparing works of art that portrays women as weak soul that needs protection, such as Enlist by Spear, to some other propaganda posters, like Rosie the Riveter by Rockwell, where the government provokes women to take the position of men, much like Miller's "We Can Do It", and what the difference signifies. Femininity in Propaganda questions the women's role in the war, which also questions what women's purpose in the war, compared to the government's, is.

The Needlessness of War

What is the purpose of war? Exactly why do people fight and what (or who, or how) is it supposed to benefit? Both sides of the war kill millions of people and yet everything seems to be justified in the end. While V for Victory asks these questions, Derek's The Needlessness of War states that no matter what the war is for, "in the end, it just wastes people's lives" (Derek). He also states that "no matter how much progress is achieved through war, there is just as much and more regression". He is absolutely correct in saying this- one war leads to another war due to the regression it brings in the end. In the blog, he uses Fairey's Hug Bombs and Drop Babies to show the irony of U.S. government and their slogan, "We need to use our global supremacy to protect our children", though we use our children at times of war. Furthermore, in the art work Phan Thi Kim Phuc by Nick Ut, he points out that the United States was involved in the Vietnam War to persecute their beliefs of communism, though the U.S. is famous for freedom of rights and liberties. Though not all of the art works in this blog relates to the questioning of war, some of the art pieces in The Needlessness of War points out that war is pointless because the purpose of war is, pointless.