The Society for the Preservation of Destruction (On Wood), 2015

Shepard Fairey's The Society for the Preservation of Destruction (2015) is a screenprint on wood panel, number 1 from an edition of just 6. The title arcs across the top like the crest of an official institution, crowned by a torch and laurel and subtitled "Manufacturing Dissent Since 89", a wry nod to the 1989 start of the OBEY campaign. Below, an ornamental inverted triangle encloses a shattered bottle and ends in the OBEY star-face icon, while red chevrons drive the eye down the panel. The mock-civic pomp of the design turns Fairey's propaganda vocabulary back on itself.Fairey (b. 1970) emerged from the skateboarding and punk scenes with the OBEY Giant sticker campaign he began in 1989, and reached a global audience with his 2008 Hope portrait of Barack Obama. His works on wood panel are made in far smaller numbers than his screenprints on paper, and the crackled finish of the surface gives the image the weight and presence of an object.Panel: 24 × 18 in (61 × 46 cm). Signed and numbered 1/6 by the artist. Offered in a wood floater frame.