Shepard Fairey Drops Timely Police-Themed Print on Tuesday
Shepard Fairey has been an outspoken critic on a number of timely political issues, such as money in politics, the oil and gas industry and military/police brutality. His latest print deals with the last of those issues, Police Brutality, which has garnered an extraordinary amount of attention from the media and public over the last year.
To get his message across, Shepard has employed his usual juxtaposition between a violent figure, the police officer in riot gear, and peaceful imagery, the flower coming out of the officer's baton.
Here is what Fairey had to say about the image:
I’m over in Berlin, and I was asked if my Sadistic Florist image is an SS soldier. No, it is NOT an SS uniform. It is a Washington DC riot police uniform. I guess the power of suggestion has shown itself here in Berlin. Unfortunately, there have been many deaths at the hands of the police historically and in recent months in the US. The police are frequently portrayed as “peace keepers” which is why I have the humorous flowers in the image. Over 5,000 civilians have died at the hands of the police in the us since 9/11. That is far more than have been killed by terrorists… including 9/11. Check out this article by Katie Rucke. We need police to wear body-cameras, not more electronic data collection from ordinary citizens.
Drop Details: This goes on sale Tuesday, June 23th at a random time between 1 and 2 pm EST. It's a signed and numbered edition of 450, measuring 18 x 24. It will cost $45.
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