Shepard Fairey is the founder of the "André the Giant has a Posse" urban art.
Since he started plastering stickers and stencils all over Charleston, South Carolina, 15 years ago, it has transformed into the legendary "Obey Giant" phenomenon seen all over the United States.
Dom Saldana of our pal Crave Online website interviewed Shepard about how he got started:
"Obey I think is a provocative word. There is a movie called "They Live", which star Rowdy
RowdyRoddy Piper and other wrestlers... The concept of the movie is similar to phenomenology in that people don't realize that they're controlled by aliens and they use authority and advertising to get the bewildered herd of blue collar workers to submit and obey.... That movie had a pretty big effect on me even though it was a silly movie just like the original "André the Giant has a Posse" sticker was silly but there's something that had led to [something] more significant. The use of the word obey is really too get people to question their obedience and ask if they really wanted to obey."
http://www.craveonline.com/articles/lifestyle/04649776/obey_shepard_fairey_exclusive.html
You mean Roddy Piper (aka Rowdy Roddy)
and
Andrew the Giant?
You mean André the Giant.
Little bit of editorial checking would be good
He started them while he was attending Rhode Island School of Design in Providence RI.
The first Andre images were made on one of our xerox machines and one of the first targets of Shepard Fairey was the Campaign posters of then mayor Buddy Cianci. Fairey altered the billboards to make it look like a Andre the Giant was running for office.
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm