Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Was House of Blues vandalized last night?

Under the dark cover of night and blanket of white snowfall, vandals apparently hit the House of Blues last night, wheat pasting a large red propaganda poster on the side of the building facing the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The poster mirrors the work of contemporary graphic design artist Shepard Fairey, who in October was accused of putting up similar posters in Harvard Square and Allston, the latter of which remains on the side of the International Bicycle Center on Brighton Avenue (see picture).

Fairey has an exhibit opening at the ICA on Feb. 6, so maybe this is just some sort of cross promotion between the artist and Live Nation.

The unexpected new addition to the House of Blues complex could be seen earlier today from the Mass. Pike during the morning commute. Because of the snowstorm, the House of Blues construction site is relatively abandoned.

Under clearer weather, there are usually up to 30 construction workers on-site putting the finishing touches on the Live Nation venue before its Feb. 20 grand opening.

The 38-year-old Fairey gained notoriety in the late ‘80s and ‘90s plastering Andre the Giant “OBEY” stickers around cities and recently used images of Barack Obama in his work. According to his Wikipedia page, “the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists.” It is suspected that he does not work alone, and has cohorts who help wall the city with his artwork.

More to come…

4 comments:

  1. Any pictures online? Too slippery to bike down to Kenmore to see it.

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  2. Video should be up in a few minutes on my Boston Herald HOTLINE blog: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment

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  3. Great. Thanks very much Michael.

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