Fri, 11 Jun 2004
Andre the Giant has a posse -- 7'4", 520 lbs.
In 1988, Shepard Fairey moved to Providence from South Carolina to attend RISD. At the time he was already into punk and skate culture, but it was the sticker scene in Providence that played an integral role in his artistic development. Fairey goes so far as to say that it changed his life--and he's right. In the summer of 1989 he put up the first Andre the Giant sticker. Today that image--the stenciled black-and-white face, the crude handwriting, the enigmatic message--can be found around the world. You've probably seen one, maybe in the airport, maybe in a bathroom. In fact, once you start noticing the stickers, you'll realize how widespread they are.
Writing about Fairey, Roy Christopher reports that a colleague of his "regards the Giant sensation as a 'well-managed fluke.'" The sticker itself came from teaching a friend how to silkscreen--he picked Andre's image out of a newspaper to use as an example for learning color separation. The rest was an inside joke about skateboarding culture--specifically about the type of people who want to join "a posse." The project gained momentum and media attention when a RISD assignment coincided with Buddy Cianci's campaign. Fairey pasted Andre's image on a Cianci billboard; at that point, a phenomenon was born. "It was just a fortunate accident from the start, but I have to take credit for noticing what was going on, and deciding to exploit it," says Fairey himself; "the sticker did not start as anything profound." This one small project became a fifteen-year (and counting) experiment in phenomenology--a science defined by Heidegger as "the process of letting things manifest themselves."
Although the explosive growth of the Giant phenomenon is well-documented on websites, in magazines, and even in a slick coffee-table book called "Post No Bills," there is an astonishing dearth of material documenting the mulch from which the Giant grew. Fairey's studio in Olneyville's Atlantic Mills was a mecca for skaters, who would often visit just to practice tricks in his half-pipe (a type of skateboard ramp). Fairey was equally at ease teaching kids how to skateboard or silkscreen. Many skaters, punks and local scenesters would come to Fairey's studio with an idea for a poster or t-shirt, and he would patiently help them to print it themselves. By freely sharing his artwork, his space and his expertise, Fairey created a community. Visitors who received free stickers carried them to the ends of the earth. Fairey's generosity was rewarded by eager volunteers who ensured the underground notoriety of the Giant graphics. This word-of-mouth campaign eventually created the market and validation necessary for Fairey to support himself as a full-time artist; unfortunately, this did not happen until he moved away from Providence.
After graduating from RISD, Fairey continued to make stickers, posters, and t-shirts in his studio in Olneyville. Despite gaining notoriety, though, he still wasn't able to sell enough of his posters and t-shirts to make a living. He moved to San Diego at the invitation of a friend, and now lives in Los Angeles. Now he runs a design / production studio; he still makes t-shirts and posters, but also has corporate clients. In fact, says Fairey, "The money that I make from doing corporate work [for companies such as Mozilla and Mountain Dew] allows me the freedom to do other things that I want to do, such as, travel around to different cities to put my stuff up and to make more posters, stickers and stencils, all the time."
Providence has in many ways proved itself to be a place where, unpredictably, great things arise out of unlikely circumstances. Many of Providence's greatest success stories--again, AS220 and Fort Thunder are examples--began as the dream of a few people and grew into something far beyond what was initially envisioned. We would like to think that there is something about this city that inspires such creative growth; that the character of Providence itself was and important part of Fairey's success story. However, if Providence was the ideal place for Fairey to get his start, then why is he no longer here? In what ways did he outgrow Providence, and what might have made him stay?
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