When it was announced that world-famous street artist Shepard Fairey had remixed his famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) "Hope" poster that was made a household image during the Obama presidential campaign, I had mixed reactions to it. On the one hand, he modified it to support the Occupy movement! However, it was still showed illusions that Obama was on the side of the people, as the bottom of the poster read, "Mister President, we HOPE you're on our side." On his blog, Fairey said:
"This image represents my support for the Occupy movement, a grassroots movement spawned to stand up against corruption, imbalance of power, and failure of our democracy to represent and help average Americans. On the other hand, as flawed as the system is, I see Obama as a potential ally of the Occupy movement if the energy of the movement is perceived as constructive, not destructive. I still see Obama as the closest thing to “a man on the inside” that we have presently. . ."
Obviously, Obama--who hasn't defended the Occupy movement, much less defended it--is not on the side of the 99%. Clearly, many people--who didn't know--have realized that Obama was put in power to represent the 1%.
Apparently, I was not the only one disappointed with the image. Turns out that some Occupy Wall Street organizer sent him a response thanking him for his artistic contribution, but also recommending some changes because he believed the image was not "non-partisan" and seemed like it could misconstrue the Occupy Movement as a front for an Obama re-election campaign. In his blog, Fairey responded to the suggestion, and although he did not fully agree with him, he did revise the Occupy Hope poster! (See below: it reads, "We are the HOPE").
I believe Fairey should be commended, not only for the new version, but for being open to such suggestions.
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