July 21, 2004 Obey
Giant
The face of the late great wrestling superstar
André the Giant became an international underground icon in the
1990's after his image was appropriated by the designer Shephard Fairey
in the form of stickers put up as street art in cities around the world.
Often the image was subtitled with the word "Obey" or simply "Giant."
Although much of Fairey's current crop of stencils, stickers and wall
paintings rely on iconic images other than that of André,
occasionally one finds a classic piece with the Giant's
porcine mug staring blankly from a wall, like this one on Spring Street
in Nolita, in New York City. Fairey's sticker art project started out in 1989 as an
experiment in phenomenology, which he dubbed "The Giant Has a Posse." By
the mid 90's an estimated half-million Obey Giant stickers had been put
up across the globe.
Ivan Corsa Photo
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