Talk about a mixed message: Posters of President Obama "in Heath Ledger-style Joker make-up with the legend 'Socialism' beneath it has been popping up recently on surfaces around L.A.,"
Bedlam Magazine reports. While the image does allude to the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey 'HOPE' posters, and its numerous spoofs and riffs, this piece of what our sister-site
Chicagoist calls "guerrilla artwork," is trying to convey an altogether different take on the state of the nation under Obama. No one has reportedly come forward to take responsibility for the image. The folks at Bedlam take a stab at analysis:
But is it serious? We'd like to know who the artist is and whether this is the sort of provocative guer[r]illa public art that is intended to encourage people to think (although about what, we're not sure).
We suspect not. The Joker white-face imposed on Obama's visage has a sort of malicious, racist, Jim Crow quailty to it that prompts us to ask, as Stepehen Colbert puts it, "vomit, come on up."
