An Old Tshirt Blog

These Timespan T-shirts were released in 2002 by Humanitarians Not Heroes – Trong G. Nguyen’s “artist-as-company” project. The tees mark the years of birth and death of notable individuals…as well as the beginning and end of historical events. The tees are color-coded according to seven categories: gray/red for artists; green/yellow for philosophers, thinkers, and scientists; red/purple for musicians; navy/white for writers; orange/light grey for cinema, entertainers, and celebrities; beige/chocolate for other historical figures; and light blue/orange for events, eras, and periods. Nowhere is the name of the individual (or event) disclosed except on the removable tag. The dates on the T-shirt I chose for today’s post belong to Buddha, although it’s the concept of the entire T-shirt series that really appeals to me.

Now, for some bad news: as far as I know, there was only one run of these tees…and the only place you could get them was at a small shop on Smith Street in Brooklyn called Watts. The shop has since closed down. BUT…their website is still up and they may still have some T-shirts in stock that they are willing to part with for a very low price. There’s no online shop, so you’d have to email them through their site. Is it worth all of the trouble? Not for me…but only because I’ve already snatched up about a half-dozen or so of these tees over the years. (I would’ve blogged about it, but I didn’t have a blog back then.) One other thing I’d like to note: the tees are a cotton/poly blend and are quite possibly the most comfortable T-shirts I’ve ever owned.