Blog - OBEY

OBEY

While in Shibuya on Sunday, we went to check out the Obey Giant vs WK Interact "The East/West Propaganda Project" exhibition held at Tokyo Wonder Site (just across from Parco Part 2).

I've been a fan of the Obey Giant ever since I first saw a poster somewhere in the street, it reminded me of the film "They Live" where artist Shepard Fairey obviously got a lot of his inspiration. Recently I even rented that film out of nostalgia (it was still good, but the end sure is abrupt).

First we checked out the largest room where there are huge Obey and WK murals, and also smaller framed works.

In the next room were the pieces I think I liked the most. They were 12" record sleeves on which Shepard produced his high quality artwork. Unlike most of the rest of his stuff, these didn't look like propaganda but were rather music-related designs, like you could see on a record's center label, but in his own style. It looked vintage and just great!! I didn't take photos of these though (maybe next time I drop by).

In the central room were exhibited a few posters, and also the Agnès b. collaboration T-shirts... When I had seen these on the web I had thought "hmm, maybe I'd fork out ¥6000 for one of these", and I felt generous as I usually won't afford that much for a T-shirt. Well the ¥10000+ price tags were enough to make me forget about ever wanting one. Call it resistance.

Next to those though were very nice books of Shepard's works. There was a heavy one titled "Supply and Demand" that really felt like a keeper. On the back there was a price tag of about ¥10000 too, and this one didn't feel out of place. (Actually it can be found for ¥6000 on Amazon Japan or $37 on Amazon U.S.! I think I'm about to give in.) There was also a thinner one titled "Post No Bills".

Speaking of Obey goods, I recently had a look at the official online store where I found out about an original A-Trak mix CD available for only $10! Being an A-Trak fan, that's a steal. When trying to order it plus a set of badges, I found out that they'd charge me an evil $27 to ship to Japan, while regular air mail shipping should really be below $10. I had emailed and asked nicely but that didn't work...

Out of the gallery and back in the streets, we walked some more through Shibuya only to find more and more fresh Obey stickers everywhere. Here's a selection:

More photos and larger sizes at Flickr.

The Obey Giant vs WK Interact "The East/West Propaganda Project" exhibition is going on until April 22 in Shibuya, and is definitely worth checking out!

Posted on March 26, 2007 at 21:19 | Tweet |

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