Photo by Glen Friedman

Shepard Fairey

Courtesy Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey created this poster in support of Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi.

Shepard Fairey Shepard Fairey May Switch Lawyers, Court Rules Fairey’s Lawyers Say They’re Still on His Case Shepard Fairey Admits to Lying in Obama Poster Case NEA Official “Resigns” Over Politicization Charges Berlin Wall to Fall Again, This Time in L.A. Shows to See in New England Before Summer’s Out Attendance Booming at Boston’s ICA

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I like that association. I didn’t think of it, but that’s what’s amazing about art, once it’s been abstracted to a degree that the Rorschach test-like associations occur, and that’s how each individual viewer is able to personalize things in their experience.

You mentioned the AP, and I wanted to ask — it seems like you’ve had a lot of run-ins with the law as of late. So on the one hand you’re working with and for all these great causes, and on the other you’re fighting all these battles yourself. What’s it like to have both of those things going on?

Well, the AP case was very unexpected, considering that the image is transformative and there’s a clear paper trail of it not being created for profit. And it’s definitely a positive cause — unless the AP happens to dislike Obama. I was also very surprised that I was arrested in Boston [on his way to DJ a party at the ICA] without any physical evidence of me doing anything illegal.

I’ve acknowledged doing street art over the years and bending the rules. It’s a very important part of my philosophy that art be accessible to the public and that the public have a forum for expression that’s not just based on advertising; that the exchange of ideas can be done in public. What happened in Boston was based on the idea that the museum legitimizing my work was going to create a domino effect and every house in Boston was going to be spray-painted on by the time the dust had settled. That was a fear-based, irrational supposition on the part of the Boston police. But I also understand that there’s some community pressure, that a lot of people do worry about street art or graffiti marring historic sites. That’s never been my MO, but they’re worried about me as a symbol.

I’m actually really bogged down with a lot of this stuff, and it’s frustrating, but it’s not going to stop me from doing things I care about. Everything is a lesson. I adjust my approach to things based on my experiences and will always try to find a constructive way to achieve what I want to achieve.

What else do you have coming up?

I’ve been working on a lot of different things for different causes. One is a green-energy project with moveon.org. I created an image of windmills in an all-American Western landscape, and I’m really trying to cement the idea of it being patriotic to create alternative energy that will allow us to be both ethical and economic leaders. I think it’s an issue that the left and the right — the tree-hugging hippies and the cultural imperialists — can agree on: that pioneering forms of energy that will save the planet, and that the rest of the world will have to buy the technology from us, is a win-win.

I understand you’re having a second shot in Boston.

Yeah, since I got arrested on the way to DJ last time. We’re having a closing party [for the ICA show] on July 31 with me, DJ Z-Trip, and Chuck D from Public Enemy. It’s an amazing convergence of art, politics, and music that’s sort of the recipe I think is the most powerful and exciting in all the world.

What are you going to play?

I’m going to play a lot of the music that I love and that is by people I did portraits of that are in the show. So I have my hip-hop pioneers and punk-rock pioneers series, and Bowie and Johnny Cash. People I’ve made portraits of because I loved the art they created and their politics, or aspects of their politics. That’s going to be how I craft my set: a blend of music that gives you visceral pleasure, with a message. It’s the audio version of good art.

That sounds like how you describe your art.  

I’ve said in many interviews over the years that if there was a model I was following as a visual artist, it was probably one part Warhol and nine parts Public Enemy, the Clash, and Black Flag.

It’s nice to actually talk with you about your work, because we usually just have your latest arrest or whatever on the site.

You know, I understand why there’s been such a sensational interest in that: “Oh, is Shepard Fairey a plagiarist?” And then they throw some loaded words around: “Did he steal a photo?” “He got arrested.” Drama comes before content. But you’re working in the machine, so you know that, right? People need eyeballs on their Web site or their magazine or their TV show, and drama has the power to attract people; people love the lurid traffic accident that they can’t help but slow down and look at. I get it, but it’s disappointing that it can overshadow a lot of the substance of what I’m trying to do. I work really hard at trying to support good things, and when people say, “Oh, his entire career is bullshit because he steals everything,” it’s extremely hurtful and disappointing.