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Shepard Fairey — Big Brother Ripped, Version 1
Shepard Fairey

Big Brother Ripped, Version 1

2024

Big Brother Ripped, Version 1 stands as a provocative entry point into the Triple Trouble collaboration, channeling Shepard Fairey's lifelong preoccupation with surveillance, authority, and the mechanics of control. The 'ripped' element is central to both its concept and construction — layers of stencil, silkscreen, and collage are deliberately torn or distressed to expose the substrata beneath, transforming the paper surface into a metaphor for peeling back propaganda and institutional facades. Fairey's signature high-contrast graphic language, rooted in his OBEY movement and inspired by Soviet constructivist poster aesthetics, is fully present, commanding attention while simultaneously interrogating the viewer's relationship with power. Within the Triple Trouble framework, this work asserts street art's confrontational DNA, grounding the collaboration in the tradition of unauthorized public intervention and culture jamming. The title's nod to Orwell's omnipresent authoritarian figure feels urgently contemporary, suggesting that surveillance and manufactured consent are not relics of dystopian fiction but living, breathing forces in modern society.

Medium
Mixed media (stencil, silkscreen and collage) on paper
Dimensions

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Shepard Fairey, Big Brother Ripped, Version 1, 2024

Big Brother Ripped, Version 1 stands as a provocative entry point into the Triple Trouble collaboration, channeling Shepard Fairey's lifelong preoccupation with surveillance, authority, and the mechanics of control. The 'ripped' element is central to both its concept and construction — layers of stencil, silkscreen, and collage are deliberately torn or distressed to expose the substrata beneath, transforming the paper surface into a metaphor for peeling back propaganda and institutional facades. Fairey's signature high-contrast graphic language, rooted in his OBEY movement and inspired by Soviet constructivist poster aesthetics, is fully present, commanding attention while simultaneously interrogating the viewer's relationship with power. Within the Triple Trouble framework, this work asserts street art's confrontational DNA, grounding the collaboration in the tradition of unauthorized public intervention and culture jamming. The title's nod to Orwell's omnipresent authoritarian figure feels urgently contemporary, suggesting that surveillance and manufactured consent are not relics of dystopian fiction but living, breathing forces in modern society.

Medium
Mixed media (stencil, silkscreen and collage) on paper
Dimensions
39.4 x 31.8 cm
Year
2024
Seen at
HENI, London, United Kingdom

Related themes

Surveillance, Stencil Art, Street Art, Bold Colors, American, Mixed Media, Urban Aesthetic, Political Commentary, Provocative, Contemporary

More works by Shepard Fairey

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro, Hamilton Selway Gallery