Citizens truly interested in the greater well being of Boston should husband their energies. They could call for all extra police effort to be applied to staunching the flow of blood in the city's least affluent neighborhoods, which are haunted by gun violence. But not the Bay Burghers. Their privilege comes first.
Revenge is an even more interesting and disturbing subtext to this whole affair.
Mayor Thomas Menino, who has been photographed shaking hands with Fairey, and who allowed a banner heralding the ICA show to adorn City Hall, has ticked off many municipal unions — including the police — by calling on all city workers to take a one-year wage freeze in order to help Boston cope with the mounting economic crisis.In a splendid piece of enterprise reporting, the West Roxbury Transcript recently revealed that City Hall used the fact that 25 ranking members of the police department were violating residency requirements by living outside the city limits to strong-arm the senior-officers union into accepting the one-year wage freeze.
There is no solid evidence connecting the wage-freeze settlement to the Fairey's arrest. But it does not take a Rembrandt, or a Lichtenstein, or a Warhol, to connect the dots.
The Fairey case may not be edifying, but it is illuminating. However this all plays out in the courts, Boston should thank Shepard Fairey for inadvertently provoking thought and insight about how our city works.
In the meantime, visit the ICA; check out the Shepard Fairey show. Obey.
Related:
Radical chic, Interview: Shepard Fairey, Slideshow: Shepard Fairey, ''Supply and Demand'', More 
- Radical chic
“The gallery system relies on supply and demand, and I created a demand for my work by doing street art.”
- Interview: Shepard Fairey
"Denver wasn't great because I literally had a gun pointed at my head for putting posters up at the DNC."
- Slideshow: Shepard Fairey, ''Supply and Demand''
Obey Giant Art
- Vandal-in-chief
Shepard Fairey and his show "Supply and Demand" arrive at the Institute of Contemporary Art like a guerrilla general emerging from the jungle after his forces have taken the capital.
- Shepard Fairey bombs Boston
The Massachusetts-bred street artist Shepard Fairey returned to his home-turf this month to "bomb" the Phoenix offices, conduct interviews, and unveil his latest work at the ICA.
- Photos: Shepard Fairey in Harvard Square
- Inside the box
"Young people, and artists especially, respond to authenticity. And whether he's just very good at seeming authentic or whether he's really authentic, I think he has a lot of us convinced."
- Slideshow: Shepard Fairey slaps a mural on the Phoenix offices
January 22, 2009
- Artists and beholders
I found it rather stupefying that the Phoenix proudly toted an interview with Shepard Fairey on the same front page it used to complain about artists getting the shaft by money-grubbing businesses.
- Review: Shepard Fairey + Z-Trip + Chuck D
So Shepard Fairey actually made it this time. No insane, last-minute sting operations by Boston cops lurking just off the ICA’s property line. But also: no grand dramatics, either. (Like, he totally could have parachuted through a shattered skylight. In slow motion.) Fairey just showed up and did his thing.
- With plans for a downtown mural, Shepard Fairey returns to Providence
It is a rather unremarkable collection of bricks at the moment: an exterior wall at the back of Trinity Repertory Company’s Pell Chafee Performance Center in downtown Providence.
- Less
Topics:
The Editorial Page
, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Harvard University, More
, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Harvard University, Tom Menino, Tom Menino, Institute of Contemporary Art, James Joyce, Allen Ginsberg, Back Bay, STREET ART, Less
