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Rise Above Dove<\/em> (2021), Dubai Design District mural, 7.5x15m<\/span><\/p>\n For American street artist and activist Shepard Fairey, a blank wall is an invitation. \u201cI love making public art. Some people would rather be on a beach; I\u2019d rather be on a lift with a paint can in my hand,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI think that public art is valuable in any city. Having an opportunity to experience expression in public, rather than just blank walls or advertising or government signage, is really important when you look at the multidimensional aspects of every human. People respond to aesthetics, music, and creativity. So for there to be such a significant space, a forum, that\u2019s lacking something that people value in a significant way, just seems to me like a void to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n Such is his conviction in this idea that he spent four days on a hydraulic crane creating two 7.5x15m murals in Dubai Design District, inspired by the themes of peace, harmony and creative empowerment. \u201cWhen I do these public pieces, I hope that people consider the message in that specific piece, but that it also gets them to start looking at a lot of other things differently \u2013 about how public space is used, and about the potential for art to communicate. Maybe they research more of my work and they discover all the other images and ideas in my art other than just that specific piece. It\u2019s extremely important to me when I go anywhere to do an indoor art show that I also do public work, because democratising art is a pillar of my philosophy. Selling art is necessary, but it\u2019s not my number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n The art show in question was Future Mosaic<\/em> at Opera Gallery in DIFC \u2013 Shepard\u2019s first exhibition in the region. \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to come to the Middle East because I look at US foreign policy, and conflicts of culture globally that sometimes I think are exaggerated for the benefit of someone\u2019s agenda, and I have my own feelings about how universal human decency is. So I\u2019ve commented on Islamophobia, basically this compartmentalisation of the Middle East. I find it incredibly frustrating because I think it\u2019s important to assess things on a human level and not succumb to these really lazy cultural stereotypes. Obviously, the Middle East is not monolithic \u2013 Israel is very different to Syria, which is very different to the UAE. So I wanted to see some of it first-hand for a lot of reasons: for my own perspective and my own experience, and because everywhere I travel always gives me inspiration creatively, and it allows me to meet people and hear what they\u2019re going through.\u201d<\/p>\n A detail of Rise Above Peace Fingers <\/em>(2021), Dubai Design District mural, 7.5x15m<\/span><\/p>\n His OG street name, Obey, is itself a challenge to question authority and the status quo, so for many familiar with the connective thread of his work \u2013 from the subculture stencilling experiment that became the \u2018Andre the Giant Has a Posse\u2019 sticker sensation to the 2008 \u2018Hope\u2019 poster he created of Barack Obama as a grassroots statement that became the emblem of the future 44th US president\u2019s election campaign \u2013 Dubai was an unexpected destination for his first exhibition of the year. \u201cThere was a lot of misdirected negativity about Dubai when I announced this project,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cI think the Middle East is so misunderstood because Americans mostly don\u2019t travel, and there are people who really benefit from stoking fear, and that\u2019s their currency. So I think that people experiencing a place and realising that humans are humans would help.\u201d<\/p>\n From his own experience of the emirate, he reflects, \u201cI found it to be a lot more diverse, international, and tolerant than I expected. There are just so many different cultures mixing here that it\u2019s an international city in the same way that New York or LA is.\u201d He points out, \u201cA place like Dubai is actually a really important bridge from the US to the Middle East. That\u2019s really going to be one of the things I talk about when I go home, that in Dubai, you\u2019ve got people in traditional garb who were born in the UAE, and you\u2019ve got people from all over, but it all feels very harmonious. And if you are afraid to go somewhere like the Middle East because you feel that you won\u2019t understand how to fit in culturally, this would be a good place to go to see that it\u2019s not something to be afraid of.\u201d He sighs, \u201cIt seems really crazy to me that people are so fearful. A lot of the clich\u00e9s that people are told haven\u2019t been my experience at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Future Mosaic<\/em> featured 157 works, many of which were produced during the Covid crisis. \u201c\u2018Lotus Angel\u2019 was one of the first images I made at the start of the pandemic,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI love the lotus as a symbol; it\u2019s a beautiful flower that grows out of the mud and symbolises harmony and resilience. That was saying, \u2018Hey, this is uncharted territory that we\u2019re going into together, and we can all overcome it together\u2019 \u2013 images that have a positive, optimistic symbolism. I did another image of a healthcare worker holding up a torch \u2013 a little bit inspired by the Statue of Liberty and Rosie the Riveter \u2013 iconic symbols of rising above or meeting challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n He continues, \u201cThe theme Future Mosaic<\/em> applies to the art and my approach to life \u2013 building on past ideas and frameworks, expanding on those ideas and creating something new. A lot of my work is about making people see their own vulnerability and their own humanity in everyone else. There\u2019s hopefully an empathetic component of what I\u2019m trying to put across. And even when I\u2019m critiquing injustice, it\u2019s always to say, \u2018Look at the lack of humanity in this problem; let\u2019s look at it with more humanity,\u2019 whether that\u2019s around climate change, or racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism\u2026 and what your response would be if you could put yourself in the other person\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n Shepard confesses, \u201cOne thing it\u2019s really important for me to be upfront about is that, since I hadn\u2019t spent any time in the Middle East, the idea of how I would perfectly address aesthetic or cultural idiosyncrasies of the region just isn\u2019t a possibility. So I tried to look broadly at what the principles and aesthetics in my work are that I think work for humanity. And then what are some of the things that I\u2019ve been inspired by from the Middle East that tie into some of this work? With a lot of the patterning that\u2019s in the tile work and that also was part of the inspiration for the title \u2013 because there\u2019s a lot of really beautiful mosaic work in different parts of the Middle East \u2013 I looked at how the aesthetics of a lot of the pieces I was making would at least crossover.\u201d<\/p>\n He elaborates, \u201cThe title, Future Mosaic<\/em>, encouraged the audience, rather than thinking selfishly in the present, to think generously with an eye on the future. And when you looked at all the works in the show, there were images that I think are pretty universal, but\u00a0 not catering specifically to Dubai \u2013 because I didn’t know exactly how to do that anyway \u2013 but they were putting across ideas and principles that are important to me in a way that I hoped was universal enough to connect in Dubai. I try to understand the culture and the language in a way that allows me to be sensitive, but I rarely change the content or the message of what I\u2019m saying. I might change some aspect of the delivery of that message slightly to be more in tune with a place, but since I don\u2019t know exactly how to do that in Dubai, the way I met that challenge was to look at the aesthetics in the work that I think would connect with people pretty much anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the most striking images in the show were his interpretations of the Arab Woman. \u201cContext is important when I talk about those images, because in a way portraying a woman in a headscarf or a hijab in the Middle East is absolutely normal, yet very unusual in the West,\u201d he admits. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of reaction just from seeing people and fearing them because they\u2019re instantly recognised as most likely Muslim. So when I created those pieces, it was making something that tried to normalise and humanise people who had been often attacked as \u2018other\u2019. In a way, that can be seen as reductive, but sometimes portraying someone with a look in their eyes that\u2019s undeniably relatable and sympathetic can go a long way emotionally to opening someone\u2019s mind to ideas that they\u2019re just like you, they just happen to wear a headscarf. I hope the audience is understanding; I\u2019m creating them as a Westerner \u2013 a handshake from a global citizen, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n He continues, \u201cYou can see that a lot of women portrayed in my work, and I really believe in the need for more meaningful representation for women in every facet of society, whether it\u2019s the US or anywhere else in the world, but so many women in Dubai have told me, \u2018This clich\u00e9 about how women live in the shadows and are disempowered, that\u2019s not true here.\u2019 The sense that I\u2019m getting is that even if there are still some ways in which women are not offered the same pay rate or the same leadership roles as men, it\u2019s definitely not any worse from what I\u2019ve seen than the US. That problem exists in the US, so the hypocrisy of people in the US saying, \u2018If you believe in empowering women, you shouldn\u2019t go to Dubai because that makes you a hypocrite,\u2019 don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n Shepard\u2019s continued creative and cultural curiosity took him to Alserkal Avenue to visit the studio of fellow street artist and social commentator eL Seed. \u201cMehdi Ben Cheikh, the director of Galerie Itinerrance \u2013 my gallery in Paris \u2013 is Tunisian and introduced me to the work of eL Seed, and I heard he\u2019s living in Dubai,\u201d he reveals. \u201cYou can see the influence of Middle Eastern calligraphy on a lot of American artists also. Retna is massively influenced by a lot of Arabic calligraphy and there are a lot of great street artists in the Middle East. My friend Marwan Shahin is from Egypt, and created the sculpture of King Tut in the Guy Fawkes mask, 2Vth (aka Anonymous Pharaoh), for the Arab Spring uprising. He\u2019s living in LA now and he did a whole poster campaign celebrating the lifting of the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. It\u2019s cool to see a lot of the same ideas that I think are important in some of the street artists\u2019 work from the Middle East. It makes me feel we\u2019re all a lot alike, whether or not we dress the same or have the same religion, and that\u2019s something I just fundamentally believe.\u201d<\/p>\n Shepard Fairey paid Tunisian calligraffiti artist eL Seed a visit at his Alserkal Avenue studio during his Dubai trip<\/span><\/p>\n From his survey of the street-art scene, does Shepard think any of the talent in the region has what it takes to be considered among his peers one day? \u201cA lot of the creative people that I\u2019ve been talking to here say that the opportunities are just really starting to happen. It\u2019s great that Art Dubai\u2019s here, it\u2019s great that there\u2019s d3 here too, as a design – and art-focused zone to incubate that. But I think that when people think that certain visuals might not be welcome, they might censor themselves, so there need to be some steady steps from people who have the ability to share their work diplomatically, get people used to it and to have an evolution about what\u2019s acceptable in art here. The moment that happens, it will be unstoppable. It seems to be right on the precipice,\u201d he observes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not an authority, but with the way it\u2019s been explained to me is there are fears that expanding the options for expression might also be coupled with a loss of respect for other valued traditions. But then, when you try it and the true value of the traditions remain in a good way, but the conservative side starts to erode, you actually see that progress and respect can coexist \u2013 then things really start to happen,\u201d he promises. \u201cIt only takes a few breakthroughs from people who are willing to navigate the culture, the bureaucracy and the creative world, and make it all come together.\u201d<\/p>\n Rise Above Peace Fingers <\/em>(2021), Dubai Design District mural, 7.5x15m<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":4329,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[107],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2021\/05\/IMG_5351.jpg\")
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