Professor MK brought to my attention during Monday’s performance one of the images plastered across the Broadway set of an image of the "robotic skeleton in a business suit" in front of the word OBEY. Since I already wrote about Shephard Fairey's campaign of the same name, I was curious to discover the relation.
The image, seen below, is from a movie still of John Carpenter's 1988 film They Live, which tells the story of a construction worker who finds a pair of sunglasses that, when worn, shows the rich, authoritarian class as aliens, shows billboards as saying "OBEY" or "CONSUME," and money stamped with the words "THIS IS YOUR GOD."
Apparently this film and it's subversive elements had a profound effect on Fairey, as it was this scene's subliminal message that he literally decided to name his entire campaign after. I really liked that it was used on the set on Monday, and will be trying to see the movie soon.
1 comment so far
1:45 am - 11-29-2010
Thanks for posting this. The reference to “magic glasses” makes me think of how glasses were used in ETA Hoffmann’s “The Sandman” and Act I of opera we saw at the Met. Anyone care to comment?
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