Mystery Obama/Joker Poster Appears In L.A. - Updated

(Editor's Note: This story has attracted a lot of attention and we believe we've found the source of the original Photoshopped image. See the update added below.)

Los Angeles, April 25, 2009

A poster of Barack Obama in Heath Ledger-style Joker make-up with the legend 'Socialism' beneath it has been popping up recently on surfaces around L.A. It does not appear to be in the same category as the many benign take-offs on the Shepard Fairey 'Hope' poster, such as the one by Australian James Lillis (more of a straightforward spoof that merely substituted a Shepardized image of Heath Ledger as Joker on the Obama poster).

James Lillis, "Joke"

No. This clearly appears to be a political statement (albeit a confused one) -- a sort of negative version of artist Ron English's Lincoln/Obama poster. But is it serious? We'd like to know who the artist is and whether this is the sort of provocative guerilla public art that is intended to encourage people to think (although about what, we're not sure).

Ron English, "Lincoln/Obama"

We suspect not. The Joker white-face imposed on Obama's visage has a sort of malicious, racist, Jim Crow quailty to it that prompts us to ask, as Stephen Colbert puts it, "vomit, come on up."

UPDATE: The image was apparently created by Firas Khateeb, a student living in Chicago. However, whoever adapted it as a poster and added the legend, "socialism," is still a mystery.

photoshop image by Firas Khateeb

See www.flickr.com/photos/khateeb88/

Send us an email or add a comment below if you know anything about the artist or the campaign.

--Jonathan Jerald, Editor - BedlamMagazine.com

Source: Tweet from Andy Levy of Redeye

Obama "Joker" Artist is Unmasked

Guess what? He is a 20-year-old college student, Firas Alkhateeb, from Chicago and is a Dennis Kucinich supporter. So much for the theory the Obama "Joker" posters were racist.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image?

Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain?

Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.

Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.

"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."

"I abstained from voting in November," he wrote in an e-mail. "Living in Illinois, my vote means close to nothing as there was no chance Obama would not win the state." If he had to choose a politician to support, Alkhateeb said, it would be Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.