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Tampa faces mystery of Mao

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published November 5, 2005

	[Times photos: Brian Cassella]
	An image of the mid 20th century Chinese revolutionary Mao Tse-tung overlooks Franklin Street from the wall of the historic Kress building in downtown Tampa. Mao sports the word "Obey" on his collar. Graphic artist Shepard Fairey of Los Angeles started the worldwide "Obey" movement in 1989.
	A sticker on a sign on N Florida Avenue displays the Obey logo. The artist who created the logo was in Tampa recently to promote an art exhibit.

Who are the faces of downtown Tampa? Mayor Pam Iorio? County Commission Chairman Jim Norman? Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung?

Cue the Sesame Street ditty: One of these things is not like the others...

On a lonely strip of Franklin Avenue, the smiling bust of the ruthless mid 20th century revolutionary has made the historic Kress building a canvas for unexpected street art.

Tony Paige, 64, of St. Petersburg walks along the semideserted street, looking at the propaganda-style picture that recently popped up directly above a "wigs" sign on the not-so-great wall of the once-upon-a-time five-and-dime. What's Mao doing so far from Tiananmen Square?

"It's just there," he said. "I don't know why it's there."

The city's public art program hadn't approved it. The Historic Preservation Commission hadn't heard about it.

People are not sure just when Mao - who sports the word "Obey" on his collar - first appeared in Tampa. He seems to have to slipped into town under cloak of night, much like Shepard Fairey, a 35-year-old graphic artist based in Los Angeles.

Fairey started the worldwide "Obey" movement in 1989.

Fairey, who has been in and out of jail for "bombing" public places with street art, was in Tampa a week ago to promote Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture. The exhibit at the University of South Florida's Contemporary Art Museum assembles works of visual art that have emerged from urban subcultures such as skateboarding, graffiti, punk and hip-hop. While no one was taking public credit for having posted the Mao on the Kress building, advertisements for Fairey's exhibition also appeared on a nearby wall. And by Friday afternoon, Fairey had slipped off to Hawaii and could not be reached for comment.

The USF exhibition, which opened Friday, will run through Dec. 17.

Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture is at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum through Dec. 17. Admission is free.

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 21:02:02]