This Is Your God

800 of these dollars were sent out randomly to people on the sixspace mailing list

The name of a legendary Shepard Fairey show that took place at the sixspace Gallery from September 27 - October 25, 2003.

Press Release

Shepard Fairey :: This Is Your God
September 27 - October 25, 2003

Artist reception: Saturday, September 27th from 7-10pm
(free & open to the public) Artist will be in attendance

This fall, sixspace is proud to host This is Your God, a significant exhibition of new works by Shepard Fairey. Featuring a massive installation, an assault wall of prints, and silk-screened works on wood, metal, and record sleeves, This is Your God depicts the value and act of obedience as the common denominator for religious, political, and financial facets of idolization. The gallery will also debut four limited edition fine art screen prints on 100% cotton rag archival paper. In support of this show, Fairey will be creating a 13 x 40 foot billboard at the intersection of Sunset and Hollywood across from the Vista Theater in Los Angeles. (Note: inserted image not in original release.)

"The dollar is worth exactly what you are willing to give in order to get it. Obedience is the most valuable currency.” - Shepard Fairey

The exhibition title is derived from the Sci-Fi cult classic They Live, that projected a future in which aliens had come to earth not to conquer, but to exploit by controlling the world through bribes, subliminal messages, and deception. As a comment to how our contemporary advertising and commodity structure works, Fairey has created a new body of work that details the explosion of commercialism in our society, including the references to how our we put celebrities, politicians, etc. onto pedestals. Through this exhibition, he mimics and parodies these ideas.

Fairey, well known for his Obey propaganda art project campaign (a.k.a. Andre the Giant has a Posse) has had renowned exhibitions worldwide for the past decade. Recent exhibitions include LaBase, Paris, a solo exhibition in Australia, along with domestic shows in California, New York, Texas, and Detroit. He has also given lectures at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Grafill/Visuelt Convention in Norway, among others. His first book, Post No Bills, was published by Gingko Press in late 2002 and his latest book, Obey Giant, was released in April. Articles featuring his work have been published in numerous publications including Strength Magazine, Art Papers, Juxtapoz, ARKITIP, While You Were Sleeping, Anthem Magazine, Tokion, etc. Fairey is also owner of the Los Angeles graphic design company Studio Number One and has his own clothing line, Obey clothing.

From Supply and Demand, pg. 159:
The This is Your God show in 2003 at the Six Space gallery in downtown L.A. was an opportunity to showcase the sociopolitical message of the Obey campaign by paying homage to John Carpenter's They Live, which was a major source of inspiration and the basis for my use of the word "obey." The movie has a very strong message about the power of commercialism and the way that people are manipulated by advertising. One of my main concepts with the show (and the campaign as a whole) was that obedience is the most valuable currency. People rarely consider how much power they sacrifice by blindly following a self-serving corporation's marketing agenda, and how their spending habits reflect the direction in which they choose to transfer power. In They Live, the protagonist discovers hidden messages lurking behind billboards and anything commercial, and the money says "THIS IS YOUR GOD" on plain white paper. I designed a graphic that looked somewhat like real money but with that slogan, which we used for the invitations and a billboard I rented on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood to promote the show.

Works from Shepard Fairey: This Is Your God.
This show was the first time Shepard got together with Modern Multiples/Richard Duardo to produce large format and HPM prints.