Above: This is Art.

This is the first of what will probably be a five part series of articles on art. They are an attempt to translate a lecture I gave last winter on the state of the contemporary art market into a series of short essays. Part one is going to focus on what we mean when we say the word “art.”

“Modern art is merely the means by which we terrorize ourselves.” – Tracey Emin

This article opens with a request: take a minute to come up with a definition of art. If this seems like a daunting or impossible task—an assignment given at art school in hell—just bear with me.

Photo From: Street Art News

Street artist Shepard Fairey became a household name during the 2008 Presidential election when he designed the Obama Hope poster, skyrocketing him into every piecemeal lefty’s heart.  But is his work actually a trustworthy political tool?  For some time now, those with a critical eye have found Fairey’s political beliefs wanting.

Recently, the artist ran into this sentiment on the streets.  On a trip to Copenhagen, Fairey painted several murals around the city.  One of them was the above “peace dove” mural, which was painted on the site of former Ungdomshuset (or, youth house), a long time rallying point for Danish leftists.  The building was controversially cleared out by the government in 2007, but it is still a sore spot for the radical community—as demonstrated when it was vandalized with the words “No Peace!  Go Home Yankee Hipster!”  The tense situation was exacerbated by a local newspaper’s misreport that the mural was funded with municipal money.  Fairey then worked in co-operation with the RaxArt Collective, former inhabitants of the youth house, to change the lower third of the mural to include images of riot police and the words “Nothing Forgotten, Nothing Forgiven.”  Nonetheless, Shepard Fairey and one of his friends were attacked several days later outside his gallery opening (THE GUARDIAN).  Fairey himself wrote a detailed response to these events, which contains such aphorisms as, “Just as I’m opposed to U.S. xenophobia and insensitivity to the rest of the world, I’m opposed to xenophobia toward Americans from the rest of the world. Saying all Americans are imperialists is like saying all Arabs are terrorists.” (HUFFINGTON POST).  To give Fairey some credit, he doesn’t sound like a bad guy—but he clearly fails to understand how his actions (stepping into a deep-seated local conflict that he doesn’t really understand) are in fact a form of cultural imperialism.