Obey Conformity Trance Red. 18 x 24 inches. Screen print on thick cream Speckletone paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Numbered edition of 350 .
Conformity: Action in accordance with some specified standard, social custom, or authority.
Trance: A sleeplike state usually characterized by partly suspended, diminished, or absent sensory and motor activity.
Obey as a pseudo-command in my art has always been a form of reverse psychology. My philosophy is actually “question everything”. Conformity is often more unconscious than conscious… an adaptation to structures we may not agree with and a submission to unseen forces of manipulation… unseen because our eyes and minds are not open wide enough. People come up with conspiracy theories like “the Illuminati” to explain the feelings that they are cogs in someone else’s machine, but the deconstruction of power and control requires nothing more than a conscious and diligent examination of how power and influence upon the government accumulate and concentrate under capitalism. Campaign finance reform is a great way to remove the corrupt influence of capitalism from government and make democracy work for an informed populace, which is why a portion of the proceeds from these prints will benefit RepresentUs.
-Shepard