Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Obey Pole”?
Artist Statement
OBEY POLE Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 200
Summary
Obey Pole is a 2001 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant in a first edition of 200, measuring 18 x 24 inches. The title references the OBEY icon and its placement in public space, consistent with Fairey's street-art practice of applying his imagery to urban infrastructure. The record tags it with both pop-culture and consumerism-and-power themes, reflecting how the OBEY brand is deployed as a commentary on advertising and authority. The source confirms medium, year, dimensions, and edition size but includes no extended artist statement, so finer details of the composition are not documented here.
Why It Matters
Obey Pole is part of Fairey's 2001 wave of OBEY Giant screen prints, a body of work in which he was sharpening the OBEY icon into a tool for critiquing advertising, authority, and consumer conditioning. The title's reference to a pole evokes the street context of his propaganda campaign, where the icon was pasted and posted across the urban landscape, and the record's secondary theme of consumerism and power makes that critique explicit. For collectors, this print matters because it documents the OBEY brand functioning simultaneously as street art and as cultural commentary, the dual identity at the core of Fairey's reputation. The edition of 200 keeps it among the more limited sheets of the era. Its database value lies in linking it to a cluster of sibling 2001 OBEY-branded prints that together show Fairey systematically translating his street practice into collectible editions. Because the source supplies only the title, themes, and production facts, the interpretation here stays close to Fairey's documented vocabulary rather than asserting specifics the record does not contain. That measured approach helps a collector compare it fairly against better-documented works.
Collector Perspective
Obey Pole suits collectors drawn to the OBEY icon and to Fairey's commentary on advertising and authority. The 18 x 24-inch format frames easily and pairs naturally with other 2001 OBEY-branded prints in a themed grouping. The edition of 200 gives it relative scarcity that appeals to completists tracking the early-2000s series. Its explicit consumerism-and-power framing makes it a strong fit for collectors building a narrative around Fairey's critique of branding and public space rather than those seeking purely decorative work. Given limited documentation, it best rewards buyers comfortable verifying provenance and condition independently.
Historical Context
Obey Pole comes from 2001, when Fairey was producing a steady stream of Obey Giant screen prints that fused his street-poster practice with pointed commentary on consumerism and power. This situates it in his posters-and-propaganda phase, building on the OBEY sticker and icon campaigns of the prior decade while moving toward more deliberate editioned works. The pole reference connects to the public-space roots of the OBEY campaign, where the icon was deployed across urban infrastructure. The record's dual themes underscore how, by this point, Fairey was using the OBEY brand itself as the subject of critique, a defining strategy of this stretch of his career.
FAQ
When was Obey Pole made and who published it?
Obey Pole was created in 2001 and published by Obey Giant, Fairey's own imprint. It belongs to his early-2000s series of OBEY-branded screen prints that doubled as street art and as commentary on advertising and authority.
What is the edition size and dimensions?
It is a first edition of 200 copies, measuring 18 x 24 inches. This mid-size format was a standard for Fairey's period poster prints.
What themes does this print engage?
The record lists pop-culture and consumerism-and-power themes. The OBEY icon is used here as a commentary on branding, advertising, and authority, consistent with Fairey's broader propaganda-inspired practice.
How rare is Obey Pole?
With an edition of 200, it is moderately scarce compared with Fairey's later large-run prints. The source does not state that it is sold out, and no market or auction value is recorded.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.