Free Your Mind at the Imaginary Foundation

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Cabaret Voltair, DADA, Dadaism, Duchamp, Ernst, Hugo Ball, ImaginaryFoundation.com, Magritte, Surrealism, T-Shirts, Terry Gilliam, Tristan Tzara, art shirts, imaginary foundation, surreal shirts

ImaginaryFoundation.com’s concepts rock, a lot of them remind me of my own work at college. In the 90’s, at arts school, I was heavily influenced by the Dada movement, we didn’t just paint, make videos, installations, print etc., we also had to read (at least a few shelves of art history literature and a couple of boxes of art critique on the side). I was always into photo-montage, I started at school, at the time it was almost unheard of in South East England’s suburbia. Still, it grabbed me an ‘O’ and an ‘A’ level so I must’ve been doing something right. I have a suspicion they’re using sublimated (heat press) printing which can do wonders in the right hands, but in my heart of hearts I’d always prefer a screen printed tee (it’s merely the texture of the ink on a t-shirt that influences me). Asides that I’m rather bowled over by their incredible collection.

The greatest coup in the t-shirt world is hidden away at IF’s site, if you read their ‘about page‘ you’ll find the briefest mention of their mysterious “Director”, a 70 something √ºber intellectual, supposedly the son of the founder of the Dadaist movement. Now without a name it’s quite tricky working out exactly who they mean, there’s still some debate about that. Checking it up at the UK’s Online Tate Gallery Archive and I quote “The founder of Dada was a writer, Hugo Ball. In 1916 he started a satirical night-club in Z√ºrich, the Cabaret Voltaire, and a magazine which, wrote Ball, ‘will bear the name ‘Dada’. Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada.’ This was the first of many Dada publications. Dada became an international movement and eventually formed the basis of Surrealism in Paris after the war.” He did also create the Dada Manifesto. So I’m guessing it’s Mr. Ball they’re referring to.

Oh… wait a minute, ironically Encyclopaedia Britannica thinks differently and credits the creation of the Dada movement to Tristan Tzara (original name Samuel Rosenstock) a Romanian-born French poet and essayist. It’s all rather confusing, I’d probably have to throw Emmy Hennings, and a few others in to the mix if IF actually do mean the founders of Cabaret Voltaire, an anarchic show that spawned this highly influential movement in art history.

All I know is that a guy (or is it two?) called ‘Philip Nick’ are down as the admin contact(s) for this domain. Their address is in San Francisco and seems to share the building with a company called Wildflower Linen who funnily enough print linen. Okay I’ll mark this one down as a mystery (I do hate mysteries though) and get on with the t-shirts (lol).

This is one hell of a tight collection, I’m not too keen on use of font-based texts scattered here and there at their store, I’d rather see them drawn as vectors. However it doesn’t really detract too much from what must be one of the most challenging series of tees on the market at the moment. IF are definitely my blood brothers in the world of design, they’re not after mere effect or illustrative beauty, each work commits to a concept and portrays it as concisely as possible.

I see a lot of similarities in theme and context with my own works, for instance ‘Live Out Of Your Imagination‘ has some tried and tested overtones of Ren√© Magritte’s The Son of Man, and they’re not the only t-shirt designers to take inspiration from Magritte. I myself designed ‘Big Apple‘ a while back, although I had transported the iconic man in a bowler hat to New York (obviously).

As mentioned earlier, I’d rather they drew their text. You could compare it to creating dance music, if you’ve ever had experience in producing ‘beats’ you’ll realise that after a while perfection is depressing. To re-introduce a little humanity into a digital dance track, you have to add mistakes, swing the beat, slide the notes, bring back the imperfections in which so many music lovers subconsciously find solace and solidarity on an emotional and physical level.

Our brains are enormous super computers, we have an incredible imagination, however our subconscious intellect will on occasion throw a proverbial spanner in the works, leaving many feeling ‘cold’, and essentially removed from the ‘art experience’. Text and image, oh woe is me, I spent 3 years debating the allegiances of these two at college; typography is an art in itself, language can evoke both logical enquiry and emotional response, but an over familiarity without question can breed indifference. Still, a very minor criticism that could easily be fixed.

I enjoy their surrealist touch, the way that IF seems to wander into areas that most t-shirt designers wouldn’t consider, the fact that they’re trying to “go all metaphysical’ on their audience makes laugh somewhat, it’s exactly what I’ve been accused of by certain critics, design and art are two very different animals, I love to blur the imaginary border between the two. It’s a great tradition, from Hieronymous Bosch to Banksy, and a whole heap of others in between.

What IF and I have in common is that we don’t reject the illusory for the sake of any Pseudo-Modernist credibility. All artists with a passion for photo-montage deal in the differences between pictorial and abstract expression, perfecting composition by chance event or even plain old persistence of thought. Without the luxuries afforded by the traditional painter (for example), we glean the truth from what is essentially history’s abandoned imagery.

I particularly appreciate the crosshatched hand and pointing finger in “Parallel Universe” – I am reminded of Terry Gilliam’s early Python animations, the Hand of God pointing down on what could possibly be our own parallel universe. Yet again I’m not loving the font, In fact I don’t think this even needs text. I’d rather see a black hole, a worm hole, a vortex in the bottom-right corner. I think that’d be enough explanation.

This must be my fave tee at IF, and if I did ask for a free sample t-shirt for every review (you wouldn’t believe how many reviewers are on to that con) then I’d be asking for this one. I love music, it’s my second love after art and design, okay make that my third, my first has to be my woman Christina (digging in my ribs as I write). However I’ve had an extremely sketchy past as far as music goes. I spent a year learning to create, mix and produce from home, I even attended a course at Point Blank in London for a few terms, but I couldn’t hack it as a long-term career.

Producers seem to see less of the sun than artists, you can’t record production sound in a room full of windows, you have to insulate the walls for a start, cardboard egg boxes or sponge foam (if you’re rich). If you’re really rich you’d probably get someone else to sit in the dark and bark them instructions from the beach patio. I digress, my point is this is an invigorating design, it actually lifts my spirits a few notches, which is a feat in itself. I remember the love of music for nothing but the music, it was a high old time, everyone jumping to everything, even a car alarm, but these days it’s all bills bills bills. I couldn’t have made it in music, I’m not cut-throat enough, I’m not as obsessed with perfect beats, and in all honesty I’m too dour to meet and greet. I had a few near misses at Garageband.com, a lot of pats on the back and encouragement, but deep down I knew I wasn’t going to rock anyone’s world. At least I can manage to recapture a little of that excitement in my designs, and I appreciate how well IF have managed to do the same thing in I Believe in Music. Yes, yes, the text is perfect in this!

If you’re looking for something like an outer body experience whilst you’re t-shirt shopping on the net, you should try ImaginaryFoundation.com, it’s what they’re here for!

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