Battle of the Political Air Force Ones

by Guest Contributor Marisol LeBron, originally published at Post Pomo Nuyorican Homo

Last year Puerto Rican artist Miguel Luciano created a pair of Nike Air Force Ones with the image of Filiberto Ojeda Rios, head of the Puerto Rican Indepencence group Los Macheteros.

Filiberto was murdered by the FBI in his home. Miguel Luciano’s piece wanted to explore the way that Filiberto had been commodified as a slain revolutionary (similar to the way that Che is commodified on t-shirts) and created these sneakers. The sneakers garnered some mixed feelings (check out Raquel Z. Rivera’s amazing piece about the tensions these sneakers bring up at Reggaetonica and here).

Well now the battle of the political A1′s on!

Artist Jimm Lasser recently opened his exhibition in New York, with Obama as the theme of the exhibit. “The Obama Force One” is one of the most interesting pieces in the show, with graphics of Obama engraved onto the sole.

What do you all think? Interesting comments on the commidification of “leaders” or just plain commodity?