Via OBEY Giant
Shepard Fairey, the graphic artist who got famous in 2008 for his stylized reproduction of a photo of then-Sen. Barack Obama accompanied by the word “Hope,” will show off his latest political statement at a demonstration today when he debuts a new poster targeting the National Rifle Association.
Fairey’s new poster, almost fascistic in its effects, is a response to the setbacks to attempts to enhance federal gun laws following last December’s massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The poster is a slight modification of one Fairey released last month, depicting an assault rifle above the phrase “America: Where God saves and Satan invests—in assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
The original version was topped by the logo of Fairey’s graphic design and clothing company OBEY Giant; this one replaces that with the letters “NRA.”
Fairey released the first version as a reaction to the Newtown shooting and to other mass shootings across the United States last year. “I’m not a big fan of the absurd abundance of guns in the U.S.,” he wrote on his website. “I’m also perplexed by the claim of much of the nation to have ‘Christian values.’ If God tells us to love our neighbor and not to take another human life, where do the assault weapons and piles of ammo fit into these ‘Christian values’? I personally think assault weapons fall more in the ‘Satan’s values’ category.”
He repurposed the design to focus on the NRA earlier this month after the organization started lobbying against a bipartisan gun control bill introduced into the U.S. Senate that would have expanded background checks on all firearms purchases. But the measure was unable to overcome a filibuster, preventing it from being moved through the legislative process.
Copies of Fairey’s new poster will be distributed today a rally today in downtown D.C. organized by Occupy the NRA, a pro-gun control group. The demonstration, scheduled for noon at McPherson Square, will feature speeches by several gun control advocates and relatives of shooting victims.
