Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Shepard Fairey Around Boston

Shepard Fairey is coming to the ICA in Feburary (Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand) and the ICA set up some approved areas for him to post his work (Radical chic Shepard Fairey posters Harvard Square). I thought it would be a fun project to go around the greater Boston area and take a look at all the spaces.

I work in Central Square so I decided to check out the graffiti wall near Central Kitchen on one of my lunch breaks. I could not tell what was his and I had no camera so I decided to come back on the weekend after I had had a chance to see the Harvard Square site.

On Saturday I got on the T to do some graffiti (Street Art) hunting. I thought it would be fun to take Granger, the best English Lab in the world, on the T. I got half way there and I remembered Big G's stair phobia. He might not make it up the stairs once he got down. I hoped there were elevators. Granger paused at the stairs at Alewife and skittered a little on the tile floors. Once we got on the train he did great and got some attention from passengers. There were Elevators at Harvard so he was fine.


The first space I came to was at the Massachusetts Ave / Brattle St / JFK St‎ intersection on the walled off store front of what was previously The Greenhouse. The Greenhouse was a great little dive with really good fries and chocolate cookies. I don't know why they closed it down and why nothing has replaced it. Around the corner at the wall outside of the Gap and the basement of The Tannery is the second Harvard Square entry. I really liked this piece.

There was a blues duo in the square. Two older guys. One doing some nice guitar work and the other had a classic blues voice and played the harmonica. I called my friend CJ back in LA to share the musical joy. The high pitched harmonica was the only thing that made it past my cell phone speaker.

After that G and I walked down towards Central Square. We passed the Harvard Lampoon building on the way there and I was happy to see it decorated as a pumpkin for Halloween. Nothing seemed particularly Shepard Fairey but there was some really cool stuff there. All central square visitors should stop and take a look at the graffiti wall.

There was a little bit of a struggle to find a stair case with the proper lighting and width (He doesn't like closed dark spaces) to keep Granger from being spooked. Once he got past the T security doors he was pretty calm and got on the train with no problem. At Alewife he was happy to take the elevator up and all went well.

The next weekend I ran down pretty close to sunset with Pam to Union Square to see the display there. I was not that familiar with the square so it took awhile to find it and we had to wander a bit to get our bearings. Pam noticed a comic book store and suggested we ask them. Props for her keen eye. I asked the girl behind the counter if she knew where the Shepard Fairey street art was displayed and she kind've looked at me cross eyed. Then I showed her the clip out of the Pheonix (See Above) and asked where the Boutique Grand was. She knew exactly what I was talking about and pointed us in the right direction. By the time I got there the sun was pretty low and I was worried about the quality of the photo. When I went to take the picture I realized that the battery in the camera was dead. No biggie. I should come back when the sun is higher anyway.

The next Saturday I was determined to get all of the remaining sites captured. Granger jumped in the back of the Mazda and we went on our trek. I first went back to Union Square and took a picture of the little girl holding a hand grenade rose. Provocative, No? I like all of the images of flowers with weapons. Of course it reminds me of the famous image from the 1967 March on the Pentagon. All of his subjects seem very unconscious of the message they are sending.

There was no convenient place to tie Granger off so I skillfully to took the picture while simultaneously holding his leash.

Next I went down to Montgomery Street in the South End. As always is the case in the South End or anywhere in Boston proper it was challenging to find parking and I had no idea where on Montgomery Street it would be. Finally after circling the neighborhood a half dozen times I stole a residents only spot in front of the school on M Street. I assumed the display would be on some concrete wall near this urban looking area. I took Granger out of the hatchback and started to look around. There was no street art to be seen in this area so I walked west towards the town homes. The street looked quite nice with the fall colors. The poster space was at the end of the street. When I got there a couple was putting there child into their car and seemed slightly curios as to why I was standing outside of their townhouse.

This poster was a combination of The Tannery and Union Square displays.


Coming back to my car I was happy to see that there was no ticket and no one had taken particular offense to me taking a private spot.

Next stop was the International Bicycle Center in Alston. As I was traveling down Brighton Ave. I found an open spot but there was someone double parked just in front of the space. I waited to see if he was going to take it but eventually assumed that they were not interested. I started into the spot and suddenly the car started moving aggressively into the space. After he parked I felt bad so I pulled up next to the driver to apologize for appearing to steel his spot. He misinterpreted my intentions and gave me the evil eye. I motioned for him to roll down his window and he started to but then waved me off. I found a spot two cars behind him and lingered with Granger a little to see if the offended parker would walk my way but he never surfaced. Was I looking for trouble or some imagined restitution with this stranger. I guess I felt bad thinking that he would be pissed off all day thinking he was hassled by another, in this case imaginary, obnoxious Boston driver.

Just as I got to the International Bicycle Center a couple arrived to look at the display. The guy kept trying to take a picture of the poster unpolluted buy his girlfriends attempts to obtain his attention. Every time he would tell her to get out of the way she would move and then jump back into the frame with a whimsical little dance and pose. Finally he got his picture or just accepted his lot in life and left the wall for me to photograph. You can sneak a peak of the pair on the left.

All in all a great way to spend a couple of weekend days. If you want to see all of the pictures and download larger size images see my photo stream on Flikr.

Oh and this is my desk top as of Dia de los Muertos.


Addendum: schmeeeb found this at Harvard. http://tontowasgreen.posterous.com/shepard-fairey-art-in-harvard-square

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