T-Shirts And Durags Series

My collage series, "T-Shirts And Durags", explores the intersection of fashion, music, sports, and cultural identity within the context of hip hop and popular culture. As a "hip hop head", I have always been fascinated by the ways in which clothing and accessories play a crucial role in expressing one's individuality and affiliation with a particular community. For this series, I have collected scraps of found hip hop concert t-shirts and use the silkscreen images of iconic hip hop figures, such as Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Nas, Nikki Minaj and others. I then combined these elements with durags, a staple accessory in hip hop fashion, to create dynamic and layered compositions that celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of hip hop and popular culture. Through my use of collage, I try to highlight the beauty and complexity of these seemingly mundane items, and create a visual representation of the rich mixture of a gumbo that includes history, identity, community, struggle, survival, enguinity and community that hip hop encompasses. By repurposing these mundane, sometimes discarded materials, I hope to draw attention to the value and significance of the everyday objects that we often take for granted, and to encourage viewers to consider the ways in which fashion and culture intersect and shape our identities. Overall, the "T-Shirts And Durags" series is a celebration of Black culture and the power of fashion and self expression to shape our individual and collective identities. It is my hope that this series will inspire viewers to appreciate the beauty and diversity of black culture and to embrace their own unique identities and expression.