Artist Statement
“I teamed up with my good friend and documentary photographer, Martha Cooper, on a new print release called "People's Discontent." Martha Cooper has been photographing creative kids in action on city streets since the mid-1970s. I remixed one of Martha's iconic photos from her book, Street Play, titled "Hitchhiking a Bus on Houston Street" that she shot in 1978 in the Lower East Side of New York City. There was no advertisement on the back of the bus in her original photo, and since disco was the rage in the late '70s, I thought it made sense for me to add a disco radio station with the slogan
About This Print
People's Discontent is a 2021 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant, measuring 24 x 18 inches on thick cream Speckletone paper, signed and numbered in an edition of 550. The image is an original illustration based on a 1978 photograph by documentary photographer Martha Cooper titled "Hitchhiking a Bus on Houston Street," shot in New York's Lower East Side. Fairey remixed the scene, adding a disco radio-station ad reading "Listen To The Sounds of People's Disco," a "DISCO-ntent" slogan, and a spray-paint can in the child's hand. The work first released through Urban Nation Museum in Berlin as part of its Martha Cooper exhibition.
Market Context
Estimated market value: 222.5. Observed range 139.99–373.88. Latest recorded sale: Sep 26, 20. Value is the median of recorded public sales (>= $100); low-high shows the observed sale range.