The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas is hosting a screening of the cult favorite "They Live" on Thursday June 9th, and will be showing a special treat from John Carpenter himself: a video in which he reflects on 'They Live', and its prescience with regards to a media-saturated culture. He also unveils Shepard Fairey's Mondo 'They Live' artwork. You may be familiar with Fairey's previous artwork, which includes the iconic "Obey" street art seen above and the "Hope" Obama poster. Fairey had a lot to say about the influence They Live had on his artwork:
"The This is Your God show in 2003 at the Six Space gallery in downtown L.A. was an opportunity to showcase the sociopolitical message of the OBey campaign by paying homage to John Carpenter's They Live, which was a major source of inspiration and the basis for my use of the word "obey." The movie has a very strong message about the power of commercialism and the way that people are manipulated by advertising. One of my main concepts with the show (and the campaign as a whole) was that obedience is the most valuable currency. People rarely consider how much power they sacrifice by blindly following a self-serving corporation's marketing agenda, and how their spending habits reflect the direction in which they choose to transfer power. In They Live, the protagonist discovers hidden messages lurking behind billboards and anything commercial, and the money says "THIS IS YOUR GOD" on plain white paper. I designed a graphic that looked somewhat like real money but with that slogan, which we used for the invitations and a billboard I rented on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood to promote the show."
Shepard Fairey will be in attendance for tomorrow's screening, and a limited amount of the famous They Live posters will be available for purchase. If you're in the Austin area, there are still a few tickets left for purchase. But if you can't make it, at least you can see John Carpenter's video here!
