Obey Giant Page #5

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that's the guy

you're dating."

And, um...

I was sort of like, "Huh.

Did you do that?"

And he was like,

"Yeah," he did do that.

So it was sort

of like he was

decorating my

neighborhood for me.

I didn't quite understand

what he was doing.

I said, "What are you

trying to make us obey?"

But hearing his explanation

of what Obey meant

and that really it's

just telling everyone

to open their eyes,

I loved that.

When I started

dating Amanda,

I had a great

travel companion.

And someone that was

willing to be an accomplice.

We started traveling, you know,

pretty early in our

relationship together.

And we noticed most

any place that we went,

he had been there before

and there was some remnant

of what he had done.

She'd go with me

to San Francisco,

she'd go with me

to Tokyo, Hong Kong.

If it had been a good week

and I had a teeny bit of money,

we'd stay at

a $25 a night hotel

and go out all night

putting posters up,

go out to brunch

the next day.

Yeah, it was really

a Bonnie and Clyde romance.

It was awesome.

And he never asked me

to look out for him,

but I felt compelled to be

looking around like...

Amanda just, I think,

thought it was good fun

and mischief and

something we bonded over.

Look at me and smile, baby.

Huh?

Nah!

Those cute white

legs of yours.

In the beginning

I'd grab some stickers

and I was like,

"I can put this up too."

Then I'd be

a little bit nervous

and I'd just

throw it up

and walk away

really fast

and he'd be like,

"You can't put the

stickers up crooked!"

And I'm like, "Ah..."

I'm not going

back to fix it.

That's so awesome,

it looks great.

She didn't mind staying

out at night bombing,

she didn't mind

the risk, at first.

And then I started

getting arrested a lot.

(sirens)

Everyone thinks being

arrested's no big deal

until it actually

happens to them

and they see what

it's like firsthand.

(sirens)

(radio dispatch)

Whether it's, you know,

not letting me

make my phone call,

not letting me

have access

to something

to drink

or access

to a bathroom,

putting the handcuffs

on too tight.

I've been denied

my insulin in jail

four times,

and two of the times

it was so bad

that I got really sick.

Well, in the

first few dates

he told me he was

Type 1 diabetic.

So I wanted him

to be really careful

because, I mean,

he could die.

When I was arrested

in Philadelphia,

a guard kept walking by,

every time he'd

walk by, I'd say,

"Excuse me, sir,

I'm a Type 1 diabetic.

I haven't had insulin

in close to 24 hours.

I could get very sick

from not getting my insulin."

He wouldn't even

acknowledge my existence.

And then finally came

to the door of the cell.

As he's unlocking it,

I walked up closer

to the door and said,

"Thank you so much,

I'm sorry to keep

saying something

when you're

walking by."

The moment he

had the door open,

he just goes

boom in the face,

knocks me back,

closes the door

again and says,

"Shut the f*** up

unless you want it

to be worse

the next time."

The next morning

when I got him out,

he pulls up to a taxi cab

that I'm outside with

and he gets in the

car and he's green.

And he basically gets

into the cab and vomits.

And I'm looking

at him like,

"What is wrong?"

And he said, "They

wouldn't give me my insulin."

These things happen

to people all the time,

but when I tell people

they don't believe me.

They think that I'm

exaggerating to sound cool

and it's part

of my rebel image

I'm trying

to cultivate.

I mean, this happened

in multiple places

where he wasn't

given his insulin.

That's when I started

getting really scared

about him getting caught.

Police officer--

I'm not gonna arrest you.

I'm not gonna arrest you,

I just wanna talk to you, dude.

Don't film

from that side,

film from this

side over here.

You understand why, right?

Because you're gonna

attract attention.

It was not legal,

that's for sure.

Everything

was not legal,

but, you know,

we were not thinking as much.

We didn't have kids

or something to

be worried about.

Ooh!

Thierry was unusual

in that he would

take the same risks

holding a video camera.

To get the shot,

I would go up more

to get the right

shot to film him.

Yeah, it was hard.

I would call him,

"Shepard, should we

do something tonight?

Shepard, should

we do something?"

He's like, "Oh!"

Every night.

He followed me for

five years relentlessly

is the only way

I can put it.

Yeah, this is good.

Except if you

have the light on--

I mean, I had kind of

a love-hate relationship

with Thierry.

Thierry,

get out of here

with the camera, okay?

He was very aggravating

but he could also

be really endearing.

And he's pretty crazy

in a lot of really

irritating ways

but also some

kind of cool ways.

And when I see like

the shot I'm filming

and it's a little bit dark,

I would put the light

and he would like

turn around

and like freak.

No, no, no,

don't use that.

"Turn off the light,

turn off the light!

And I'm like,

"Yeah, yeah!"

And three minutes later,

I put back the light.

"Turn off the light!"

I let Thierry follow

me because I thought

that he would

get a perspective

that no one

else would get.

All right, let's go.

And he did.

He had a focus,

he had a goal,

and was making

it a reality.

It's why I stay

next to him.

But there is always

a beginning of it

and you got

the beginning.

When Bush was

elected in 2000,

I wasn't happy about it.

And then when

Bush started talking

about Iraq after 9/11,

I was completely

perplexed by that.

There's no question

that the leader of Iraq

is an evil man.

We know he's

been developing

weapons of

mass destruction.

And so we're watching

him very carefully.

We're watching

him carefully.

I was asked

at the time,

"Well, do you think

that, you know,

in the wake of 9/11

it's time for you

to censor yourself

a little bit

because people are very

sensitive right now?"

I said, "No, no,

now is the time

to be even

more outspoken

because so many people

are censoring themselves

that only these voices

of fear and aggression

are being heard.

I have to make work

that's, you know,

a counter-narrative."

In 2004,

before the election,

Robbie Conal,

who'd been one of

my big inspirations

with his Reagan

Contradiction,

as well as various

other political posters

and a graffiti

artist named Mear

and I all collaborated

on anti-Bush posters.

It was so moving

to me, man,

because

that's my job.

They were

doing great art,

but they weren't doing

anything near, you know,

adversarial portraits

of George f***ing Bush,

you know?

And there they were,

these young guys,

coming to the old guy,

you know, my turf,

saying, "Come on, let's go.

What have you done

for us lately?"

You know, I'm going

like, "This is great."

You know, I started

crying, like...

Mine had Bush hugging

a bomb and it said,

"...Or was it hug

babies and drop bombs?"

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