The Shepard Fairey, 'DAMAGED' (2017) Los Angeles exhibition has been recreated entirely in virtual reality (VR) with help from the VR/AR/AI company Talespin and is one of my personal favourite designs to date.
The artwork within the gallery continues Fairey's use of socio-political commentary, moving from his highly popular theme of "HOPE" towards his next step of the process to solving problems. As Fairey (2018) himself said, "I definitely think that art can be part of the solution because it can inspire people to look at an issue they might otherwise ignore or reject".
As well as his socio-political messages, Fairey also goes further to dive into the depths of issues regarding social media, such as it's temporary nature best displayed by McLuhan (1967) in his statement, "the medium is the message". I believe this theme and statement are very insightful in figuring out Fairey's process of creating this design, as a statement against the rapidly changing social media climate Fairey has created a design capable of standing against this change.
In today's current issue of global quarantine I believe that this design is important now more than ever, as it allows almost anyone to experience these wonderful works from the comfort of one's own home. With even national museums closing their doors, the accessibility of art is incredibly important and Fairey's work is an ambitious step towards global accessibility for art.
The argument of how accessible art should be and who it is created for is a century long debate surrounding the culture of art. One of the most notable artists to begin creating art for the public was Pablo Picasso, as he controversially incorporated imagery of everyday life, current events and popular music within his pieces (Rothschild, 2003). This defiance to the high art standards became an innovation that would dominate the history of art and design to today.
References
Fairey, S. (2018). Damaged. VR't Ventures. https://www.vrtventures.art/
McLuhan, M., National Broadcasting Company., & McGraw-Hill Book Company. (1967).This is Marshall McLuhan: The medium is the message. New York: NBC.
Rothschild, D. (2003, December). Mission Impossible? Bridging the Gap Between Modern Art and Its Public. Spirng 2000, 76(2).