Indulge In Your Artsy, Inner Hopey Fantasies!

Courtesy of Paste Magazine! Make your own Fairey! I made mine! It's a little slow and clunky, but still fun. (via Gawker)

PS. If you make a really good one, send it to me and I'll post it on the blog on Inauguration Day!

The Assassination Waltz

People keep joking about the untimely demise of President-Elect Barack Obama and it continues to not be funny. Take "artist" Apollo Braun's (aka Doron Braunshtein's) sweatshirt opus -- Who Killed Obama?

From Gawker:

Now that we have a glorious, hopey new president, it's time for the assholes to come out. Idiot L.E.S. designer Apollo Braun—famous for being the idiot who makes sweatshirts saying "Who Killed Obama?"— has issued a mumbly press release declaring that he will not stop making his idiot sweatshirts, despite alleged pressure from the FBI, which may or may not be a likely fabrication like the rest of the idiot's stories. He also gives an appropriately amusing quote!:

"I am not saying 'Kill Obama' I am only saying, 'Who Killed Obama?' And yes, you may say that I am predicting the near future ... I am still not sure if this is the best pop art creation I have ever made, or if it is the worst pop art creation I have ever made. But one thing is certain, it is definitely one pop creation that asks a lot of questions and evokes a lot of emotions in people... If I wouldn't do it, as an artist, who will?"

Great.

This isn't Braun's first attempt at being an asshole. He's a repeat offender. He created the "Who Killed Obama?" shirt back in March around the same time he was pushing an "Obama Is My Slave" T-shirt. He expressed horror that some individuals -- who may or may have not been Negroes -- expressed their discontent in the most forceful language possible. He even claimed he got roughed up by some unruly black girls, but that alleged assault is highly in doubt. Besides, claiming you were pimped slapped by tweens wearing skinny jeans who are two years out of the "That's So Raven" phase does not inspire empathy. I really don't think he was horrified by all the negative attention so much as he was delightfully pleased. He's one of those boring, pseudo hipster artist provocateurs.

[B.d.], who left the Holy Land for New York in the summer of 2001, is no stranger to controversy. One of his fashion shows featured a gay wedding between two models, one with a mask of President George W. Bush, the other wearing an Osama bin Laden mask. He doesn’t seem to be a fan of any politicians, stating he is no fan of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and that Sen. John McCain “is not the answer” for America. His line of anti-Obama shirts has been on sale since March, sporting slogans like “Jews Against Obama,” “Obama = Hitler,” and “Who Killed Obama?” the latter of which the designer claims has sold 1,200. They sell for anywhere from $69 to $250.

I think he should just drop it and leave this sort of thing to the professionals. And by professionals I mean Ann Coulter.

Seriously. She doesn't come down to your job and knock the mop out of your hand, Pseudo Hipster Boy. Get off her race-baiting turf.

That said, since Obama started running two years ago he has endured countless threats and acts of really tacky art, including the racist whack-a-doodle clusterfuck that developed around the time when Gov. Sarah Palin was singing her no. 1 alt/country/folk/rock hit "Obama's Been Pal'in Around With Terrorists (Wouldn't You Rather Be Palin Around With Me?)"

Palin talked about infamous William Ayers so much she's still blabbering about him in interviews, but as a wise woman in a weave and hot pants once told me, if you liked it then you should've put a ring on it.

Before that there were whack-a-doodles and art exhibits like the double threat of "The Assassination of Barack Obama" and "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton" created by "artist" Yazmany Arboleda earlier this year. The exhibit memorably featured a picture of Obama's adorable daughters with "Nappy Headed Hos" at the top (pictured above). I believe the exhibit was supposed to make you think. All I could think was that the artist was a tool. Like Pseudo Hipster Boy here, the artist was in it for the attention.

They're shock artists.

Sometimes shock art has a value and sometimes it's just tasteless boosterism. Look how edgy I am. I made a sculpture of Osama bin Laden raping Tom Cruise on Oprah's couch as Suri looks on and a pigeon poops on Xenu. Wow. I am so bad ass now. For $65, I'll put it on a T-shirt.

I don't see this stopping anytime soon -- the unfunny jokes, crappy assassination art and the deranged -- so for those who actually care we are going to have to endure. After all, that's what the Obamas will be doing as a family. Trying to fix the country's 1,001 problems while enduring the BS that comes with the job.

We will have to endure the threats, the shock artists and the whack-a-doodles and, dare I say it, the Sarah Palin, unless something happens that renders them all pop political eunuchs. Unless something happens that makes white supremacist groups stop using Obama's election as a recruitment tool, this is our future.

Reserve your outrage for something worthy. This tool is not it. This was more of a public service announcement. When it's "clobberin' time" you'll know. For now, simply vent as I have or share your coping mechanisms with myself and the others.

Right now, I'm just going to shout a stream of explitives then take some Clonazepam. That's how I'm making it through the next four years -- Brave. Angry. Neurotic. It's the Black Snob way.

The Good, the Bad and the Absurd, Pt. 2: Obama Art

Black Eyed Pea, Taboo and his blue "Obama" shoes make a political fashion statement -- gauche, yet politically popular.

Barack Obama's candidacy has been a muse to the many artists of the world and my inbox stays afloat in crazy Obama swag, artwork, fashion, cartoons, computer generated graphics, videos, tchotchkes and other bits of inspiration/ridiculousness. Here is Tuesday's latest dose.

An Obama mosaic poster on sale in Jakarta, Indonesia.

A farm full of artsy-fartsy hope by Hilary Ross and Jim Lennox in Pennsylvania. Perhaps to bringing political parity to that Sarah Palin crop circle?

And below are some assorted pieces of Barack based artwork/illustration. I'm not sure where I found them or got them.

Operation Provoke Via Art of Michelle Obama Fails

My favorite hacky, controversial sculptor Daniel Edwards of all things celebrity and tacky is at it again.

After giving us the Paris Hilton autopsy, Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug, Oprah as an Egyptian royalty and a "dead" Prince Harry, Edwards has taken up the visage of Michelle Obama and ... well, it's kind of meh.

Edwards said: "The goal is to create a look for Michelle Obama that eliminates excessive comparisons to Jackie Kennedy."

The bust, entitled "Michelle Obama's Makeover for America" goes on display at the Leo Kesting Gallery in New York on October 1 ...

Molding her as an Egyptian queen with a bald eagle afro pick and "magic boobies" with the American flag carved across them I felt this was a fail for Edwards.

As I told reader Brett Thursday night, this art wasn't meant for any of us to actually like. It's supposed to evoke a response or challenge the audience. In that sense, his greatest success was the piece he did on Prince Harry. It was "successful" because he achieved his goal -- to shock people into the realization that they'd become "desensitized" to from the Iraq War while insulting the monarchy for being some ultimate form of celebrity culture married with religion and nationalism.

Denigrating pop starlets and their offspring -- like Paris, Britney and, in one case, the fake, bronzed poop of Suri Cruise -- is like miming a more morbid version of Andy Warhol and his famous fifteen minutes.

Long story short, the Michelle bust isn't denigrating enough to fit in with the pop starlet exploitation and isn't shocking enough to fit in with jarring visceral response of a dead prince. There's something almost romantic and tragic in Edward's depiction of a real English prince, lost in the field of battle with coins on his eyes to pay for his cross over the river Styx. In his hand, Harry is clutching a cameo of his mother, another powerful symbol, Princess Diana of Wales. It invokes a response, especially in the finished version of this piece where Harry's ears are severed off as prizes for those who killed him.

It was daring because that could have happened, especially since Harry did go on to serve in Afghanistan, albeit secretly, until he was found out. And it's exploitive because it shows how the world cared dearly if the man third in line for what is largely a ceremonial British crown was killed, but other soldiers' deaths are footnotes at the bottom of newspaper columns. The sculpture showed how obscene celebrity culture can be when met with the reality of our rapidly changing world.

The Michelle bust looks like a high school art project. It's not good in the way Edwards would want it to be. He'd want something that would get people talking or protesting. I gather most will either think it's funny or shrug.