Apparently, there was some interwebs chatter regarding Shepard Fairey and his status as a sellout following his recent DJ appearance and muraling in Dallas. I don’t think I contributed to this chatter, as I don’t think my website gets much traffic,* but I would like to correct a few of my own errors, just to be sure that I’m being consistent and giving credit where it is due.
In my post about his visit, I suggested that Mr. Fairey didn’t actually participate in any of the wheatpasting. I am happy to report that Shep did, indeed, do some of the work himself, if the images here, here, and here, and an interview he gave to Peter Simek of D Magazine are to be believed (and I believe they are). Additionally, the murals they completed were mostly spraypaint (and bucket paint, perhaps, though I saw no evidence of that in his production photos).
I also reported—incorrectly, thanks to information on the Dallas Contemporary website—that Shep and the gang created “more than 12” murals in and around West Dallas… they did 5: one outside the Dallas Contemporary, three on Singleton (at McPherson, east of Sylvan), and one at the corner of Sylvan and Fort Worth Avenue, on the retaining wall below the Belmont Hotel. The image above is part of the mural outside the Belmont, and the full gallery—images I shot last Sunday at the Contemporary and on Singleton, plus shots of the Belmont mural from today—is below.
I’m very thankful that the Contemporary brought Mr. Fairey to Dallas, and found walls for him to decorate, as this visit has sparked some renewed interest in an idea I have for a follow-up to my thesis. Since I completed that essay, I’ve learned a great deal more about graffiti, and my thinking on street art and graffiti (and the Splasher group) has changed somewhat. We’ll see if I can keep this interest going long enough to get something written.
Anyway, here are some photos of the Belmont mural, and a reposting of the images from last week. Enjoy.
Also, I did find one (marginally) illegal piece today… there’s a sticker on a light pole on a tiny median at Singleton and Fort Worth Avenue about 20 yards from the mural at the Belmont… So that’s something, anyway.
*Google analytics reports 222 unique visitors and 28 repeats between January 12 and February 11… I’m not that popular *snif*
