October 21, 2009

From L.A. to Tehran, His Art Is Not ABCNT

Posted by Zoneil Maharaj at 11:00AM

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Born and raised in Los Angeles, Iranian-American street artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and DJ Ali Reza (a.k.a. ABCNT) creates work that is rooted heavily in politics. His enigmatic trademark design features the upper body of a man in a business suit wearing a bandit mask.

His designs -- including a tribute print of slain Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan, a poster of Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Dracula and a graphic of Bill O'Reilly with a gun to the back of his head (guess who the masked assailant is) titled "Kill Bill" -- have hit walls from L.A. to Iran and everywhere in between, either by Reza himself or those aligned with his mission.

We caught up with Reza to talk about art and politics.

WireTap: Shepard Fairey is the first artists that comes to peoples' minds when I show folks your work. Fairey's been criticized by other artists for his re-appropriation of political images; some have called it plagiarism. You posted the "Disobey Duh Fairey" video on your blog. What's your opinion of Fairey and artists using fair use images in their work in general?

Ali Reza: [Our work is] in the same genre, if anything, but I feel like my work is more relevant politically and that's been intentional. I do a lot of different stuff in various mediums so the comparison is maybe true regarding some of my work. I mean, street art is a global movement and Shepard Fairey definitely made his mark, got up all over the world and influenced a lot of people, but at this point his whole gimmick is transparent to a lot of people. Personally, he lost me a long time ago.

As far as plagiarism, just recently Obey Clothing ripped off our crew member Mullett's (Restitution Press) bandit image , which, in a way, led to the "Disobey Duh Fairey" video. Phantom was already spearheading that project and I happened to catch him on the radio on KPFK just a couple days after we found out about the Res Press situation. I just knew I had to take that audio and narrate it visually to teach people who just don't know any better. It's a beautiful thing to represent truth. So, I mean, it is what it is, and people have a right to call him out. 

WT: As an Iranian American artist, what issues do you feel need to be addressed?

AR: The whole situation in Iran is heartbreaking. The largest number of Iranians living outside of Iran are in L.A. Families are Shah sympathizers and there are lots of student organizations here and there but they're not all that progressive. By comparison to what student groups were doing in the '60s and '70s, it's all crap. They would rather just promote clubs, parties and corny concerts rather than maybe address the fact that their brothers and sisters in Iran can't even get a beer!  

I have a lot of Armenian friends, and their community here is much more organized. There's much more activity and that's a direct result of the Armenian genocide and cultural preservation.

That was the catalyst for this project I started, this I-R-A-N (Iranian Rebel Alliance Network) page on MySpace (myspace.com/iranalliance) and Twitter (twitter.com/iranalliance) where the aim was for kids to come across a view of Iran they had never been exposed to. Not just Iranian kids, either, I mean everybody because Iran is so misunderstood and there's lots of forces working against progress.

WT: The I-R-A-N Twitter is constantly updated with news from Iran. How much time do you devote each day to reading the news and following what's going on there?

AR: I can't sleep if I don't check news on Iran before the morning. Since there's roughly a 12-hour difference and the population there is all awake, I try to get my perspective out on their time. I slept on Twitter up until after the election. I never understood its potential until kids in Iran showed me what's really possible with it. So, now I've been on there for maybe a couple months now. Proud to say I got Reza Aslan following the network. That dude knows what's up. 

WT: Iran has a pretty large political street art scene. Recently, your stickers and posters of Taraneh Mousavi and Neda Agha-Soltan were put up in Iran. In your travels to Iran, what did you see in terms of political street art? 

AR: The last time I was in Iran was in 2002. Since then it's obviously dramatically changed. Nonetheless, it's a beautiful country. Living under fascism is not an easy thing to do, so kids gotta be creative and they are. The street art scene is alive and well and they're definitely doing their thing [and] getting deserved recognition for it. That's actually how I got my images out there. One of the cats out there goes by the alias Khamoosh, which translates to "Hush" or "Hush Graffiti." I put the call out once the graphic was made and he ran with it, sent some great images back and I'm forever thankful.  

See more of Reza's work online at ABCNT.info.