Colloquial text is an important part of the materiality of the work tbC makes and presents an evocative and provocative account of the cultural environment young people inhabit. tbC creates T-shirts with personal text grabs printed on them that express how young people feel about themselves and the communities they live in. These T-Shirts present everyday narratives about suburban life and are raw and honest testimonies about what it’s like to be young in the contemporary world.
For many adults, young people’s language and dialogue is nothing more than white noise. Some choose to ignore it; others find it infuriating – even disturbing. Whatever the experience, this raw, combative, irreverent, playful, idiomatic, slang, inane and evocative language is a fundamental resource for learning about and better understanding young people and their creative, cultural, social and political experiences.
The T-Shirt Project has inspired three other text/dialogue-based projects: Episodic, The Art of Conversation (Digital) and The Art of Conversation (Gallery). All three engage audiences in conversations about and with youth people.