The nation’s largest retailer, Walmart, has come under fire for stealing the work of Street Artist Eddie Colla and selling it as a Banksy piece (oh man, the irony here is a little meta).
The nation’s largest retailer, Walmart, has come under fire for stealing the work of Street Artist Eddie Colla and selling it as a Banksy piece (oh man, the irony here is a little meta).
Looks like you had the chance to support Colla in his attempt to sue Walmart over the infringement – the street artist was selling original prints to help raise money for a legal fund. Colla did an interview with One Time Run about the incident. Here’s a snippet:
xRun: When you first created the image for “If you want to achieve greatness” it gained quite a bit of traction through social media and Tumblr, what was your initial feelings a the positive feedback?
Eddie Colla: Initially I felt good that I had created something that seemed relevant to people. My second thought was something along the lines of “Shit, why do so many people feel subjugated in our society”. I think I was just surprised at the number and types of people who gravitated to it.
1xRun: It’s been a few years since you create this image and slogan – did you ever think it would be hijacked by Walmart and labeled a BANKSY?
Eddie Colla: That’s the irony, isn’t it? I made a piece about individuals controlling their own fate and not making their success contingent on the approval of others. It then gets adopted by a neo-feudal corporation like Walmart. A corporation whose employment practices have created a 2 million person underclass in this country. That’s where this becomes an issue of conviction. Walmart waves American Flags, kowtows to a hypocritical right wing Christian ideology but that’s merely a marketing strategy. If Walmart actually believed in any part of that ridiculous rhetoric they would certainly never put work by an artist like me in their stores.
