Tokyo recently witnessed the latest stage of an arresting visual campaign -- the sudden appearance around town of black, white and red posters and stickers featuring the iconographic face of pro-wrestler Andre the Giant and the ominous message "Obey" printed below.
Who put these up? Are they an advertisement for a rock group? A religious cult? A fashion label?
The questions and reactions the posters provoke are many, and that, in fact, is the whole idea. Part of a worldwide underground art project by U.S. graphic artist Shepard Fairey, they have no intrinsic meaning of their own but are simply intended to "stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both [the image(s)] and their relationship with their surroundings."