NYC-based graffiti artist VEW has a message for ISIS, and it’s one we can all get behind.
In a video shot by Ratter, the graffiti artist elected to use an abandoned subway platform to put together a vibrant middle finger to the terrorist group: a lightsaber-wielding Jawa from the Star Wars universe behind letters in the familiar Star Wars font, only here they spell, “FUCK ISIS.”
In Ratter’s video below, you can watch a montage of VEW at work, selecting the site and creating his art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSDwB_wHXA
Hardcore Star Wars fans might nerd up and tell VEW a Jawa would just sell a lightsaber for scrap, but that’s not the point. VEW told Ratter he “wanted to do something to show solidarity with the people of Paris after the attacks and also send a big visual middle finger to the terror group, which has been very successful in its messaging and online recruiting efforts.” Ratter reports VEW’s use of a Star Wars character was simply savvy marketing given the approaching cinematic juggernaut that is Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
More importantly, VEW says wanted to put his work out there as inspiration for other street artists to make their own anti-ISIS statements, a form of reverse propaganda. VEW calls ISIS ideology “ass-backwards and dangerous” and “counterproductive to the human race.”
He’s right. Let’s hope his message takes hold and spreads like wildfire.