Some photos have been popping up of various art covered billboards in Boston by Shepard Fairey, but it was unclear if they were paid for, liberated or otherwise. When contacted by email, the artist explained that it was the Institute of Contemporary Art who hooked up the spots via their “relationship with Clear Channel.” Initially he had reservations about working with the outdoor billboard company. “At first I was hesitant because of what I know about Clear Channel,” wrote Fairey. “But several variables made me change my mind.” He went onto to describe why the media conglomerate isn’t as evil as it used to be:
“First, Clear Channel recently changed ownership and is no longer in the hands of right wing Christians. Secondly, I was offered the billboards as part of a promotion to test a new environmentally friendly image material they want to switch over to. I am very into environmental conservation, so I was down with that. The billboards through Clear Channel actually cost less than it would cost me to make the materials at Kinkos. Plus, they could just be art billboards which I thought was great to infiltrate the ad domain.”
Not only that, but he also gets to flaunt his art legally in the public domain after just getting arrested by Boston police weeks prior for putting up illegal work while in town for his major exhibit at the ICA.
|Photo: Shepard Fairey|
You would think somebody could have stopped him before he misspelled "YOU'RE"?
I would venture to guess that it is supposed to be read as "Your Eye Here", illustrating the connection between billboards and their ability to catch the eye. Not to mention that he didn't put it up himself and I'm sure that the people responsible for it checked for grammatical errors. Did you even read the article?