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Shepard Fairey talks about the Obama-as-Joker poster

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As someone who helped enshrine Barack Obama in the electorate’s mind through the creation of a poster, Shepard Fairey has been thinking a good deal about another poster that depicts the president in bold aesthetic terms.
Our friends at the Top of the Ticket blog recently spoke by phone to Fairey about his views on the poster of Obama as Heath Ledger’s Joker from ‘The Dark Knight.’

‘I have my doubts about the person’s intelligence,’ Fairey said. ‘It’s not grammatically correct. It would be ‘socialist’ ... Obama is not Marx. He didn’t create socialism.’

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At the same time, the L.A. street artist complimented the strength of the message: ‘The artwork is great in that it gets a point across really quickly. The Joker is a sinister, evil character that can’t be trusted. And if they want to make that parallel with Obama -- bam.’

The poster portraying Obama in gruesome Joker face has appeared on surfaces near L.A. freeways as well as online. The creator of the poster, who is still unknown, used an existing photograph of Obama from Time magazine.

To read Top of the TIcket’s full interview with Fairey, click here.

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-- David Ng

Credit: KTLA

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