Air Force One

Graffiti artists are true mavericks, restless rule-breakers who come up with their own visual languages. In April 2006, a video began circulating around the web: the tagging of Air Force One. Jumpy, grainy footage shows a hooded figure breaking onto the runway at Edwards Air Force Base where the President’s plane sits idle. He creeps past armed soldiers with guard dogs and tags one of the engines: “Still Free.” As CNN, USA Today, ABC News, and countless other news organizations would later report, the figure was Marc Ecko, and the plane he tagged was actually a full-scale replica of Air Force One, a Boeing jet rented and covertly painted to look exactly like the president’s plane . The video was so real-looking that the Pentagon and the Air Force were looking into whether someone had actually crept onto their runway. Much more than a meaningless prank, Still Free encapsulates what Marc Ecko does best: approach contemporary landscape from a fresh, original angle, and create something that leaves an indelible stamp on pop culture.