Private contracts have grown to the point where, as of 2007, there were more contractor personnel on the ground in Iraq than soldiers. defense contractors) cry out that we’re hurting the economy, empowering evil nations like Iran and North Korea and imperiling the rest of the world.ĭefense contractors are actually a big part of the military spending problem, often charging 2 to 3 times more than it would cost the military to generate the same services in-house. And yet every time defense budget cuts are on the table, lobbyists for the Aerospace Industries Association (whose members include the 5 largest U.S. Our navy has more firepower than the next 20 largest navies in the world combined. Within the federal budget, we spend more on defense than on all other Cabinet departments (Education, Energy, Agriculture, Environmental Protection, Justice, etc.) combined. government is projected to spend $680 billion on defense - nearly as much as the rest of the world’s militaries combined. But even if you feel that a strong military is vital to protecting our allies and our interests abroad, you may be alarmed by the Pentagon’s extravagance. Personally I feel that wars, especially under the circumstances in which we’ve engaged in them, create far more problems than they resolve (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Cold War come to mind). In 1961, as President Eisenhower was leaving office, he delivered a farewell speech in which he warned that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Judging by the fabrications and misconstructions that sucked us into the Iraq War, and the virtual blank check we’ve handed to defense contractors, I’d say as a nation we’ve done a generally horrible job of keeping the military-industrial complex in check. Launch price per set (4 prints): £3,600 inc vat / $5,400 inc CA sales tax.The Imperial Glory print is a comment upon the U.S. Launch price per print: £1000 inc vat / $1500 inc CA sales tax, Medium: Silkscreen and gold foil block print on Somerset Tub sized 410gsm.Įdition of 75. The effect very cleverly mimicking the delicate design of scroll-work found on US monetary notes. In ‘Power and Glory’ the richness of design is heightened by Fairey’s use, for the first time, of foil-blocking, a method whereby a metallic sheet is debossed onto the sheet of paper, using a metal etched plate, and printed after the silk screening process.
The set could just as easily have been titled ‘Whose Power and Whose Glory?’, since the piece is equal parts celebratory and cautionary because one person's American dream is another person's American nightmare. This Trojan horse effect of drawing the viewer in to the image through the use of design and colour to then spit back questions of allegiance and ownership are key to Fairey’s work, much like Jamie Reid inserting a safety-pin into the lip of the Queen. Fairey hijacks the solitary star inserting the Obey motif, itself an international logo that questions authority. Much like advertising the incessant flying of the flag outside homes, stores, and businesses has turned it into a corporate brand identity that Fairey subverts both stylistically and conceptually.Īs the design of the US flag, over time, has developed to incorporate more States, so Fairey has graphically dissected the ‘Stars and Stripes’, and re-configured them into a completely new design, where the single star is the dominant central motif surrounded by seven stripes. Its popularity and consequently its Pop Art qualities have not been lost on Fairey who understands but also questions its ubiquitous presence. Serving initially as the ‘marking of American territory’, Adam Goodheart, Prologue of ‘1861: The Civil War Awakening’, it has now also become the calling card of the biggest consumer society in the world. Celebrated, revered, abused, and even burnt the US flag constantly invokes passion on a grand scale. The genesis for each print is the American Flag, an iconic and potent image that artists such as Jasper Johns’s ‘Flag’ (1954) and Peter Blake’s ‘Old Glory’ (2011) have explored as has Joe Rosenthal’s ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ (1945) in photography. The prints will be exhibited at the LA Art Show15 - 19 January 2014 (Booth 622). Entitled ‘Power and Glory’ this is the third project the gallery has worked on with Fairey, The set of four new works continue the artist's investigation into contemporary America. The Paul Stolper gallery is proud to announce the launch of a group of four new screen prints with foil-block by internationally renowned LA based artist Shepard Fairey.